Paul Ngobeni has defended Judge John Hlophe in a complaint against the
Constitutional Court

Alessandro Rossi and
Zerene Haddad

left South Africa, the matter has
now passed onto the police and
the issue of pressing charges lies
A FORTNIGHT ago, SABC 3’s with them.
Special Assignment aired ‘Finale
Hall added that, ‘When this
for a Paedophile’ in which they became a public issue, we immeexposed former UCT College diately spent time with staff and
of Music Associate Professor, students in the College of Music to
Graham Fitch. The episode leveled listen to their concerns and to proallegations against him of sexual vide them with as much informaabuse and preying on young street tion as we were able to do. I think
children in Cape Town as well as that most people understand that
being a drug addict. The inves- we do not tolerate sexual abuse
tigation into the matter had been and do everything that we can to
ongoing for over a year, but was prevent it.’
only made public recently.
At UCT, the Discrimination
In the wake of this controversy, and Harassment Office deals with
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Martin such allegations; it leads education
Hall, spoke to VARSITY about the campaigns aimed at prevention
fact that Graham Fitch remained and provides full counselling and
an employee of UCT for such support for anyone who feels that
a lengthy time period consider- they are a victim of sexual abuse.
ing the gravity of the allegations: UCT has recently drawn up new
‘We were asked by the police to policies for sexual harassment
keep the matter completely con- and sexual offences which were
fidential, so that they could pur- agreed upon last year and passed
sue their inquiries. We did not by Council in March.
imagine that this condition would
Earlier in June, the first epihold for more than a year and, if sode did not name Fitch as the
the police had told us at the time offender, as charges had not been
that they needed a year, we would pressed. However, his sudden
not have agreed to this condition. departure from South Africa the
Given the time that the police took week before the first episode was
with this inquiry, I think that the aired, led to the follow up which
University would in future ask for explicitly ousted him. Martin
a clear and binding time limit to Hall, and SRC President, Thulani
a confidentiality agreement with Madinginye, gave comments to
the police.’
Special Assignment reporters.
Fitch resigned from UCT Madinginye could not be reached
before the University could hear for comment at the time of going
charges against him. In light of to print.
this, and the fact that Fitch has

Nabeelah Martin
DEPUTY Registrar of UCT,
Paul Ngobeni, has questioned
the impartiality and legitimacy
of the Constitutional Court. In a
complaint laid with the Judicial
Services Commission, Ngobeni
accuses the Court of going against
protocol when they issued a press
release alleging that Judge John
Hlophe had attempted to influence
members of the bench.
In the complaint, Ngobeni
says: ‘In order for any ‘court’ to
make pronouncement on or adjudicate the interests of the parties, all interested persons must be
afforded constitutionally adequate
due process. That opportunity was
never afforded to Judge President
Hlophe.’
Ngobeni also accuses the Court
of prejudicing and pre-empting the
result of JSC proceedings which
are still pending. He says the press
statement was, ‘clearly intended to
provoke public condemnation of
Judge Hlophe…’
According to Professor Pierre de
Vos, the constitutional law lecturer
at the University of the Western
Cape, only the JSC is under an
obligation to keep the examination
of a judge confidential at least during the initial stage. Those who lay
the complaint (the Constitutional
Court) are not obliged to keep
their complaints confidential.
Ngobeni has also been involved
in talks with Judge Willem Heath
and Professor Sipho Seepe, in an

Paul Ngobeni - champion of Jacob Zuma and Judge John Hlophe
apparent effort to get Jacob Zuma’s
case struck off the role. Earlier
this year, Ngobeni wrote an open
letter to Arthur Chaskalson and
George Bizos, in which he wrote:
‘Zuma is entitled to argue for a
dismissal of his case under the
doctrine of abuse of process.’
In the letter, Ngobeni castigates the National Prosecuting
Authority, accusing them of,
‘gross abuse of our judicial system
in a manner that has irreparably
destroyed Zuma’s chance of getting a fair trial.’ He also denounces
Lawrence Mushwana’s statement
that the NPA had a prima facie case
against Zuma, but they wouldn’t
prosecute since the case was not
winnable. He said this statement
was ‘presumptively prejudicial,’
and that the NPA had unjustifiably
delayed the case.

Applications for
positions on VARSITY
Newspaper 2009 are now

open

See page 9 for more infomation
Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

Ngobeni’s statements have
been the inspiration for Gwede
Mantashe (Secretary General of
the ANC). Mantashe has used
Ngobeni’s line of thinking to
declare that the Constitutional
Court is using the Hlophe case
as a, ‘psychological preparation
of society,’ of a guilty verdict for
Jacob Zuma.
Ngobeni banned from practising in the US
Ngobeni has been found guilty
of misconduct in the US, and has
been barred from practising in
three States. He is facing charges
of fraud, forgery and illegal practice in Connecticut. Ngobeni is
not qualified to practice in South
Africa.

2

news

Volume 67
Number 8

Photo by Andrew Noll

Photo by Justin Andrews

Shawco holiday project
bigger and better

Holiday Project - American exchange students entertain the children during the winter holiday in Khayelitsha

Student Housing loses director
Tatenda Goredema
THE Director of Student Housing
and Residence Life (SH&RL),
Khotso Raphoto, is leaving his
post to become director of Human
Resources. The amicable Raphoto
has been Director of SH&RL for
fourteen months, and in that time
has overseen the implementation
of the residence restructuring programme, which was decided in
2005.
In an interview with VARSITY,
Raphoto stated that he was joining
Human Resources because he was
a Human Resources person by profession, but he said his leaving SH
& RL would not negatively impact
the Department. He also stated his
belief that in his short tenure as
director, the right managers had
been placed in the right positions
within the Department. The most
important thing within SH&RL,
was the management development
plan that the Department had put
together to better improve efficiency within the Department.
Raphoto commented that ‘the
mood within the Department was
lighter and more jovial, and the

intercampus

Kiss Kiss
Bang Bang
Stellies SRC have organized
a ‘Soen in n laan’- loosely
translated to a ‘Kissathon’which will take place this
Friday. They are hoping to
have 4 000 people participate in the event.
The aim of the Kissathon is
to promote peace and love.
In addition to this the SRC
are also hoping to break the
world record of having so
many people kissing at the
same time. They challenged
other SRC’s to host similar
events.
It will take place at 1
o’clock, so get your groove
on and head out to Stellies
for some loving!

Department had improved its relations with students.’ Raphoto also
touched on his visits to various
residences and stated that he interacted with students as well as
student leaders, and engaged their
concerns. He went on to talk about
the residence allocation system
that was in place at UCT, which
was the cause of many problems
at the start of the year due to over
allocation, and said that it was
unlikely that that system would
change.
However, some Sub-Wardens
within the residence system disagree with this and have voiced
their concerns saying, ‘It’s always
difficult when speaking to Student
Housing. They don’t reply to emails, are very ‘passing the buck’
in their responses and always tell
you to speak to someone else.
They also don’t give answers
that are substantial. i.e ‘for the
meanwhile, that will not happen’
– which doesn’t answer anything.’
The restructuring programme
proposed the idea that the positions
of full-time warden become more
developmental and decentralised
in terms of positioning. This was

in order to further apply UCT
policy to student life within residences and improve the running
of residences at the University.
Yet certain residences have felt
neglected by SH&RL due to the
fact that they have been without
a warden for months. Although
there is a Residence Facilities
Officer (RFO) on hand during the
day, on the weekends and at night
the entire residence is manned by
the Sub-Wardens alone.
The Secretary General of the
SRC, Thando Vilakazi thought that
in his spell at SH&RL, Raphoto
had ‘administratively done a
good job’ despite the issues of the
allocation and resnet problems.
Vilakazi carried on to say that the
systems of resnet and allocation in
residences had to be addressed and
prevented from happening again.
The good news for residents
who are unhappy about the catering service and plan to remain on
next year is that Royal Sechaba’s
contract expires at the end of the
year and that tenders have been
made for the service next year.

SRC member
found guilty
Zerene Haddad
A MEMBER of the SRC has been
found guilty by a UCT Student
Tribunal of being in possession
of a stolen laptop. VARSITY is
unable to release their name as
they are protected by the UCT
Senate’s Consitution. The person in question told VARSITY,
‘I haven’t lost any position on
the SRC. I was found guilty of
possession only.’ They stated that
they are only required to do community service. However, the right
to appeal the decision made by the
Tribunal is still an option available
to the SRC member.
Thando Vilakazi, the Secretary
General of the SRC commented
to VARSITY that, ‘We are not in
a position at this early stage to
make a full submission to students
on the matter. The information of
the outcome, as you know has just
surfaced, and the full extent of its

implications has yet to become
clear, even to us. The matter will
be taken to a meeting of the full
SRC as soon as possible acknowledging, all the while the seriousness of this issue and the need to
inform our students on the ‘next
step’ without further delay.’
At the time of going to print,
the SRC had not had the opportunity to meet as a body to decide
anything upon hearing this news
on Friday.
The hearing was held as part of
an investigation after the member
was arrested for being in possession of a stolen laptop last semester. They said that they had bought
the laptop unaware it was stolen.
On 1 April 2008, VARSITY quoted Moonira Khan, the head of the
Department of Student Affairs, as
saying that the ‘internal institutional investigation is underway
and the matter has been reported
to the UCT tribunal.’

Zerene Haddad
THIS winter vacation saw
SHAWCO’s 3rd annual Holiday
Project taking place at UCT. It has
been hailed as their largest and
longest-running holiday project to
date. Over 50 students from three
American universities participated
in the programme along with other
South African SHAWCO volunteers.
The programme is part of
a ‘service learning’ initiative
between the American universities
and SHAWCO which allows the
American students to receive academic credit, as it is recognised as
part of their degree. This year, two
new colleges participated in the
project – William and Mary and
Vanderbilt – in addition to Arcadia
who returned for a second year.
The structure of the programme
combines a lecture series with
actual tutoring in the townships
and tourist activities on the weekends. This year’s focus was on IT
training for adults and the normal
educational programmes for the
younger children that SHAWCO
runs normally during the year. The
students were accommodated in
UCT’s Vacation Accommodation
residences. Gershwin Scheepers,
who was in charge of finance
for the Holiday Project, told
VARSITY, ‘it was my first time
being involved in such a project.
It was beautifully time consuming, but you also feel like you’ve
done something. I’ve gained a lot
of insight into how Americans
perceive our culture and also how
americanised South Africa is. It
reinforced how much we are like
them.’
This year SHAWCO expanded
the project to include their tutoring projects in Kensington and
Manenberg as opposed to only
Khayelitsha, which had been the
Photo courtesy of Communications Department

The Buzz is back - Jammie Plaza was packed once again last Thursday during meridian as students
enjoyed their first tutorial-free week.

case in previous years. The course
lasted for four weeks, with extra
time included for trips to Kruger
National Park and sight-seeing
in Cape Town. Jon Hodgson,
SHAWCO Chairperson, described
the project as a way of, ‘internationalising SHAWCO’S activities
and looking overseas for funding,
to spread SHAWCO’s name and
offer opportunities to foreigners to
come and do what we do here on
a daily basis.’ Continuing with this
extension of the holiday project,
there are plans to have Australian
medical students come and work
in the SHAWCO clinics at the end
of the year on a similar venture.
This is also in an attempt to have
the SHAWCO clinics operational
for 12 months of the year, rather
than eight months.
Justin Reid, a participant from
William and Mary College, told
VARSITY, ‘I work with 6th and
7th graders with similar backgrounds in the U.S. and things
never go smoothly or as expected.
With that in mind, I felt SHAWCO
did an incredible job. No kids got
hurt. When you can say that, I
think the programme is a success.
Our university definitely intends
to continue our partnership with
SHAWCO and UCT. I’ve travelled abroad several times, but
I’ve never had an experience as
meaningful as this one.’
Not without its share of mishaps, there was a small-scale fire
in Fuller Hall where the American
students were staying. Due to
Fuller Hall being a national monument, incidents of this nature
result in concerns arising between
Student Housing and SHAWCO.
However, no one was hurt and the
fire was contained to one room
after being put out by the UCT students who worked for the Vacation
Office during the holiday period.

Waiting to ExhaleOur new Vice-Chancellor, Dr Max Price, will
formally take up his post
in August. In his letter
in the Monday Paper last
week he mentioned his
plans for UCT, in particular his thoughts on
transformation. VARSITY has yet to speak to Dr
Price on student-related
issues, until then, watch
this space for further
info.

Vega The Brand Communications School is a division of The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd., Reg. no. 1987/004754/07 which is
registered with the Department of Education as a private higher education institution under the Higher Education Act, 1997.
Registration CertiďŹ cate no. 2007/HE07/002.
* THIS PROGRAMME HAS BEEN PROVISIONALLY ACCREDITED BY THE COUNCIL ON HIGHER EDUCATION (CHE) AND IS REGISTERED WITH THE
SOUTH AFRICAN QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY (SAQA).

4

Volume 67
Number 8

Opinions
Letters

Bookshop hegemony

Editorial

THE prospect of students being able to afford text
books at more reasonable prices than Atlas Books’,
was more promising when entrepreneurial establishments such as Euro Books and Pimp my Book started
selling secondhand books on campus. But then the
UCT Deputy Registrar’s office had to remind us that,
by the way, they had decided to sign an exclusive
contract with Atlas, which means that Atlas is to have
no competition regarding book sales on campus.
For the ordinary student, this means that we
have to keep buying books at very expensive prices
because of this ‘exclusive contract’, which we took
no part in signing; and as such, the owner of Atlas
Books continues to enjoy the hegemony of making
money out of us whilst being protected from competition. On the other hand, according to this ‘exclusive
contract’, Atlas was meant to sell secondhand books
to us at reasonable prices and have not done so, and
this also constitutes a breach of the ‘exclusive contract’ on their part.
We urge Atlas and the Registrar to stop interfering with other businesses that seek to make books

Welcome back fellow sufferers. Its always a problem when UCT
goes on holiday. I find that most news takes place during the holidays. So just as we put away our pens, the xenophobic attacks took
place. As such, the focus page is dedicated to UCT’s response to the
attacks. It may be retrospective, but I feel that as time goes by, people
inevitably lose the fire of protest against reprehensible actions. We
become complacent and forgetful. Hopefully this edition will serve as
a reminder that many refugees still face a gruelling existence. There
is still a need for action and contribution by civil society.

more affordable to students, or should terminate the
contract of Atlas for failing to provide affordable
books for students. Under no circumstances should
the select few make exclusive deals amongst themselves at the expense of students’ ability to afford
good value-for-money for essential services such as
book sales!
This is for the sake of being upfront and crude
about our student-centredness as progressive student
leaders. We do not owe our self-proclaimed adversaries (DASO) who keep using dirty tricks to carry out
rubbishing campaigns against us. Since they admire
SASCO (and its UCT leadership) so much that they
keep paying attention to us, we are charmed; but our
role is to fight for better student services. Through
our transformational advancements, we aim to see to
it that every student (irrespective of socio-economic
status, gender and race) could experience university
life to their fullest potential.
Tende Makofane
SASCO-UCT Chairperson

Who are the real progressives?
THERE is a rising militancy in UCT student governance that needs to be addressed, particularly with
the SRC elections just around the corner.
Whilst I am not specifically referring to incidents
elsewhere, such as recent statements made by the
ANC Youth League President that have essentially
committed his organisation to a path of violence
should Jacob Zuma be convicted of the charges he
currently faces, or the arrests of three SASCO members, including their chairperson, at the University
of Limpopo for the alleged murder of a student
who refused to sing SASCO ‘struggle’ songs, it is
nevertheless indicative of a disturbing trend in our
political discourse. SASCO and the ANCYL, both
affiliated with the ruling ANC, refuse to acknowledge
a person’s basic freedom of political association and
instead resort to tactics of intimidation and malice
whenever threatened.
An effective, functioning SRC is in the best interests of all UCT students; however, our opponents’
intolerance of political dissent and their obsession
with pursuing personal vendettas have very often
limited the ability of the SRC to deliver on its mandate. The SASCO chairperson, Tende Makofane,
illustrated my point recently when he stated on
Vula that the SRC President, Thulani Madinginye,
and independent members of the SRC, are DASO
sympathisers, and that according to SASCO, ‘they
should be regarded as an offspring of the enemy…

our wrath should haunt them tirelessly.’ To me, this
is not the language of a progressive political organisation that has a meaningful role to play in the new
South Africa.
Why is Mr Makofane so intent on labelling
SASCO’s opponents as ‘the enemy’? We are not
the enemy; we are simply offering the students a
real alternative. We believe in an SRC that puts the
students first, that focuses on real issues that affect
UCT students every day. Student Governance should
be about more than just the empty racial rhetoric that
occupies much of our opponents’ time. As student
leaders, we should instead be focused on ensuring
that we remain relevant representatives of the students of UCT. This is the approach that DASO will
take as the real 21st century progressives.
The SRC election this semester is perhaps the
most important event on the UCT calendar, for it
will direct the course of student governance for the
next year. My hope is that our opponents will see
the counter-productive nature of their ways, and will
steer far away from the militant, anti-progressive tactics that they have previously employed. Let’s make
this an election about the people that really matter
– the students.
Chris Ryall
Branch Leader; Democratic Alliance Students’
Organisation, UCT

Profit above all else
DURING the Apartheid years, the UCT community
was highly politically active, fostering the likes of
Biko amidst a vocal student movement. Given the
challenges facing Africa today, what new ideas for
reform have the staff and students of UCT – the academic pinnacle of Africa – managed to formulate in
the last 14 years of democracy?
In 2007, we observed the flurry of indignant
rebuttals (from respected university staff members)
to Professor Benataar’s criticisms of BEE, which he
expounded during a debate in that year. Contained
in these rebuttals were allegations that the Professor
was a racist, and that he may have used logic at some
stage: no doubt an outrageous violation.
More recently, in June 2008, it was decided by
the High Court that Chinese South Africans are now
‘black’ in the technical sense. We are to understand
that ‘black’ is to mean ‘previously disadvantaged’,
and BEE reduces this to the uncontroversial policy of
‘previously-disadvantaged economic empowerment’.
As a student, these ridiculous Orwellian mind games
in the highest ranks of authority seem to be worthy
of discussion: Let us see if Varsity, the voice of the
UCT student body, can provide us with some insight,
or perhaps a forum to better organise.
Unfortunately, we are disappointed. Edition after
edition we have a selection of iPod accessory reviews,
fashion tips and the occasional spit-roast tutorial,
squeezed between adverts. University newspapers, in
particular UCT’s VARSITY newspaper, have historically been a platform for energetic and radical debate.
Alas, Varsity is today more accurately described as a
platform for profit. Indeed, the entire UCT institution
is transforming into a platform for profit. Literally
so: Observe the Thursday lunch marketing frenzy on

Jammie plaza; directly in front of the Mathematics
building of all blasphemies!
The point is that at UCT, particularly in the student body, despite a plethora of pressing issues on
this bleeding continent, there is minimal debate or
discussion. Of course not all students are apathetic,
but the UCT student body as a whole is limp and disinterested. This is a group that consists of thousands
of supposedly well-educated Africans. We should not
be surprised though; the rising price of food, electricity and petrol has no real consequences for the
average Business Science graduate – she has been
stamped by UCT Commerce. She has the branding
that says ‘This cog fits <here> (and is a good consumer)’. The rand value of subsistence is beyond her
realm of interest because the human cost of poverty
is beyond her realm of comprehension.
And despite a multitude of self-proclaimed
Marxists in our midst, the words ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need’
has left the student psyche at UCT, to be replaced by
‘Profit above all else’. Where else will the minds en
-route to power and wealth be engaged in meaningful
discussion, if not at university?
Jason Bertram
VARSITY Responds: VARSITY does not run on
a profit. All proceeds from advertising go towards
printing costs. None of the members of the collective
receive monetary compensation. VARSITY is distributed free of charge to students on campus.

Following the xenophobic attacks, it was Julius Malema’s turn
to exhort people to kill for JZ. Zwelinzima Vavi quickly took up the
chant, and the Human Rights Council’s response was pathetically
tepid. At first they demanded an apology, but when Malema steadfastly refused to provide one, they backed down. They were satisfied
when Malema subsequently said that all he meant was that he’d
make the ‘ultimate sacrifice’ for Comrade JZ.
Another worrying turn of events was when the Constitutional
Court laid a complaint against Judge Hlophe, accusing him of trying to lobby two Judges on the bench. Hlophe allegedly told the
judges that their political futures would benefit if they found JZ not
guilty. Justices Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jaftha reluctantly added
their voices to the Constitutional Court complaint against Hlophe.
The clamour rose to a pulsing throb when Kgalema Mothlanthe
and Gwede Mantashe, the incumbents of Jacob Zuma’s new order,
accused the Court of not being impartial, and preparing the country
for a guilty verdict.
The Constitutional Court erred in releasing the details to the
Media before they had laid a formal complaint. Yet Mantashe’s
charge that the Court has already prejudged Zuma, and are laying
the groundwork for a guilty verdict is disturbing. It directly questions
the Court’s legitimacy, and institutional integrity. Mantashe’s statements are also guilty of the same charge he lays against the Court,
in reverse. By questioning the Court’s ability to provide Zuma with a
fair trial, he is preparing the country to reject a guilty verdict.
Closer to home, SRC nominations close this Friday. If you’re
tired of being represented and would like to participate in student
governance, get your friends to nominate you. Then get them to vote
as well. The SRC can hardly be said to be legitimately elected if only
a small percentage of students vote. So when they get into office, they
start on the backfoot.
One thing that most students are guilty of is randomly making
crosses on the ballot papers. At least read the manifestos before you
vote. Maybe even attend interrogations (I know this is hopelessly
optimistic of me to suggest). I don’t think anyone who has voted randomly deserves the right to criticise the SRC when they subsequently
get elected. You have the power to put competent and willing people
in office, so use your discretion.
Enjoy the edition,
Nabeelah

disclaimer
The Varsity Opinions section is a vehicle for expression on any
topic by members of the University or other interested parties. The
opinions within this section are not necessarily those of the Varsity
Collective. The Opinions Editor reserves the right to edit or shorten
letters. Letters should include the name and telephone number of the
writer, and must be received by 5 pm on the Wednesday before publication. They should not exceed 350 words, and will not be published
under a pseudonym, or anonymously.

Varsity

WITH student elections around
the corner, the Secretary General
of the SRC, Thando Vilakazi,
spoke to VARSITY, highlighting
the importance of the SRC and its
function within UCT.
VARSITY: In your view, what is
the SRC’s role in the university?
Thando Vilakazi: The SRC is
essentially the lead student governing body, ahead of societies
and faculty and residence councils/committees. All of this feeds
into the SRC, and its role at the
University is of great importance
in terms of representing the student body and looking out for
student concerns.
V: What were the highlights of
the year for the SRC?
TV: The most notable achievements that the SRC accomplished
were the successes with handling
the academic exclusions and readmission processes, the stand that
the students took against racism
and the signed petition earlier in
the year amongst others.
V: How did you manage to deal
with the controversies surrounding certain SRC members, including the President?
TV: I think that the SRC has
done well in continuing its work
after the incidents involving
Karabo Mkhabela, the President,
Thulani Madiginye, and another
SRC member who has now subsequently lost his position on the
council.

the

V: What challenges does the SRC
face in its remaining months in
office?
TV: We will be dealing with the
upcoming transformation month
and new ways of tackling the
broader transformative agenda.
We’ll also be looking to rigorously reopen the academic timetable
debate, which has been an issue
of great concern over the past
few semesters. The University
fee-setting period is under way
for next year and the SRC has
stated its intent to uphold the student position in the process. The
Entrepreneurship Forum is still
being built up and work on that is
ongoing. The Council is also currently involved, along with representatives from the Residence SubCouncil, in the tender process for
the Residence Catering Contract
for 2009-2011, improving the services, resources and space available to societies for their effective
functioning and looking into the
case of non-performing societies.

One of a kind eMarketing text book
Zerene Haddad
BUSINESS students will be
pleased to know that a new free
online marketing text book is
now available to South Africans.
Quirk eMarketing, the largest
online marketing agency in Africa
launched the book last week. The
book has been compiled by the
various department heads of Quirk
and covers the twelve core tactics
of online services.
Rob Stokes, the CEO of Quirk
is the driving force behind the
book and has been lecturing at
South African universities for the
past nine years. It is the first
marketing text book in South
Africa of its kind: it subscribes to
the Open Education Declaration
and is licensed under Creative
Commons, meaning that students

can legally distribute and alter the
work in any way or form, provided
attribution to Quirk is retained.
A former UCT student, Tim
Shier who is now the Marketing
Manager at Quirk and a contributor to the book told VARSITY,
‘The book is a comprehensive
summary of Quirk’s experiences
within the South African online
over a decade. UCT has been particularly good at assisting us and
making sure that the book is relevant to their courses.’ It has been
prescribed at UCT’s Graduate
School of Business as well as the
Marketing Departments eMarketing course.
The book is available for
download at www.quirk.biz/emarketingtextbook or at bookstores
from 6 August 2008.
Photo courtesy of wyd2008.org

Student governance
in perspective
Tatenda Goredema

5

news

SRC elections will be held in
August and anyone wishing to
run for election should forward
their name for nomination by 1
August 2008. This year’s theme is
‘Building Democracy’.
Dates to diarise:
SRC Election Launch: 31 July
Q&A Week: 11-15 August
Election Week: 18-22 August

GIVEAWAY: One lucky student will receive a free hardcopy
of the book which includes a
R120 Google AdWords voucher.
All you have to do is email your
answer to the question below
to textbook@quirk.biz: ‘Which
online eMarketing agency published the book?’

World Youth Day RevelrySpanish youth at the final Mass
of WYD in Sydney, Australia
celebrate upon hearing that the
next WYD in 2011 will be held
in Madrid, Spain. An estimated
500,000 people descended upon
Sydney for the week-long event
from 15 July-20 July. Over 700
Cardinals and Bishops attended
as well as 125,000 international
visitors. The Pope used this opportunity to once again apologise
for the sexual abuse scandals
that have plagued the Church
recently.

srctransformation month

brings you

We as the Student Representative Council of 2008 speak and act on behalf of the student body in order to create a holistic tertiary educational experience. Transformation is an essential element of what we strive to achieve. At the end of our term we will be judged on how effectively we have represented your changing
needs, and how we have facilitated the evolution of our university.
August is Transformation Month. We, in accordance with UCT's outlook on transformation, believe that it "should permeate the university, involve all members of
the university community and underpin all activities." This extends beyond just a change in statistics, but more importantly a change in mindset.

What are we doing to transform UCT? In the academic sphere, we are pursuing a more effective solution to the troublesome academic timetable .The newly formed
Enterprise Forum has partnered with SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise), and has thus established a UCT chapter with the largest entrepreneurial organization in
the world. A sign up drive follows in the weeks ahead.
We implore you to play an active role in your student career by communicating with your SRC through the Vula Forum or on Level 7 of the Steve Biko Building.
Get involved with the planned events during Transformation Week, details to follow.
Be the change you want to see in our university. Consider your role in student leadership, perhaps you should be running for SRC and student leadership 2009.

fig.1

fig.2

fig.3

fig.4

we aim to be a excellent, innovative and socially responsive student representative council

Varsity

7

Opinions

Seamus Duggan

From the belly of the beast
Tara Leverton
IN THE space of two days, I had
stepped on four discarded condoms on campus. Would it kill you
people to find some other method
of disposal? I confess myself at a
loss as to how they even got there.
I wasn’t walking in someone’s
bedroom. I wasn’t even walking
inside a building. Are these things
being thrown from windows? Is
it common practice now to walk
until you find a spot on the pavement where a person would be
most likely to put their foot, and
drop it? Are that many people
really having sex on the stairs? In
this weather?
But I’ll get you back. One more
and I am going to trawl middle
and upper campus, systematically
collecting each semen-soaked one
and taking it away with me. What
will I do with yours when I find it?
You will never know, but I hope
the thought haunts your nightmares.
Around this time of year, people begin to smell. This is partly

because it is too cold to shower,
partly because it is too cold to
wash clothing, and partly because
even when you are freezing to
death everywhere else, it is still
possible for your armpits to sweat
under a coat. This is exacerbated
by the fact that everyone is using
less water now to save money. A
wise and venerable source recently informed me that white people
smell like wet dog in the rain, and
I have subsequently been bathing
in bactine for three weeks. I have
since been told that this was a
cruel and callous lie, but the paranoia has remained.
Around this time of year, the
SRC election sticks out its nose,
groundhog-like, to sniff the air. Its
members are already attempting to
shake the general apathy and ignorance off the student body, and I
do not envy them the task. They
were good enough to welcome us
all back in posters with little hearts
on them.
And I note that Vavi recently
apologised for saying that he was

prepared to kill another human
being for the sake of a politician.
It took him some time. Likewise,
Julius Malema has promised never
to say ‘kill’ again, although his
recent ‘lead from prison’ speech
suggest that Malema continues to
slaver at the alter of the Church
of Jacob with a fervour that
begins to make flesh crawl. One
can imagine him hiding outside
Zuma’s bathroom window at night
with binoculars, and stealing his
underclothing from the line. Tutu
blames the parents; the older generation of the ANC has been setting a bad example, and Malema,
in his youthful enthusiasm is ‘trying to make himself look big and
strong’. Am I the only one who
would wear a dropped-condom
necklace for the opportunity to
watch the Archbishop take the
ANCYL president over his knee
and give him a good seeing to?
Welcome back, boys and girls.
Lots of work to be done.

Ticket of hope and
change?
SENATOR Barack Obama, the
presumptive nominee for the
Democratic Party’s Presidential
Nomination, has been campaigning on a campaign ticket of hope
and change; something that has
been missing in US politics for
the years that George Bush has
occupied the Oval office. Senator
Obama has promised that if he
wins the election to the most powerful post in the free world, he will
change things domestically within
the US and abroad.

‘...in reality, withdrawing was a lot
harder to do than
preach’
These are bold and admirable
statements, and in making them,
Senator Obama follows in a long
line of Democratic nominees for
the Presidency who have preached
about change, such as Franklin
Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and
Jimmy Carter. The question that
I have asked myself and that
everyone should ask themselves,
is whether or not any of Obama’s
pronouncements are achievable or
not. For example, it’s all good
and well to want to withdraw
from Iraq, , but is this an achievable and realistic goal considering
the fragile balance of the Middle
East, Iran and its continued threats
against Israel? Would a with-

drawal be feasible considering the
threat of increased insurgency in
the region?
There are a few parallels to
be drawn between the current
Iraq situation and the situation in
Vietnam during Lyndon Johnson’s
presidency. Then, too, people lost
faith in the president, and many
protests took place against the
policies employed in Vietnam.
Richard Nixon ran on a platform
of change and proposed withdrawal, but in reality, withdrawing was
a lot harder to do than to preach.
Today, Senator Obama speaks of
withdrawing as a man who is
without the burden of responsibility and accountability that comes
with being the leader of the free
world; but will it all be possible if
he takes office?
Everyone has become so fed
up with George Bush’s presidency
and his poor decisions, that they
are willing to look beyond reality
and the system of bureaucracy that
limits what a sitting US President
can and can’t do in his/her term of
office. A US President is beholden
to Congress and sometimes his/
her desire to want to do something
is limited by Congress and the
always present threat of veto or
filibuster.
Another thing to remember
when watching the build-up to
these elections is that these days,
politics in the US are dictated by
polls, politicians react to what
polls say, and formulate speeches
and rhetoric around what their supporters want to hear. Professional
pollsters are often employed as
part of campaign teams, and some-

Photo courtesy of coxandforkum.com

Tatenda Goredema wonders if Obama will make good on his promise to
withdraw from Iraq

IT CANNOT be denied that South
African politics are going through
an uncertain period. Dubious personalities seem to be on the rise,
and the current theme amongst
some of the more important actors
is to blurt out whatever comes into
their heads first.
Julius Malema, the esteemed
president of the African National
Congress Youth League, set the
tone when he remarked that he and
his comrades were willing to kill
for Jacob Zuma. As if that wasn’t
enough, Malema then said that if
Zuma was arrested, he would lead
the country from his prison cell.
In between these two ludicrous
statements, he also managed to put
across his desire for the ‘elimination’ of the Democratic Alliance.
More recently, a columnist for
the Sunday Sun, Jon Qwelane,
wrote an intensely homophobic
article in which he stated that
he agreed with Robert Mugabe’s
stance on gays and lesbians, and
it takes very little imagination
to work out what that policy is.
Qwelane further demonstrated his
stunted intellect when he said that
if things carried on as they were,
soon people would be able to
marry goats.
The lack of any sort of thought
process is not the only characteristic that Qwelane and Malema have
in common. More critically, they
are both showing a blatant disregard for South Africa’s constitution. Has so much changed since
Thabo Mbeki’s ‘I am an African’
speech at the inauguration of the
constitution, that leading figures
in the public domain now feel the
need to attack one of the greatest sources of our nation’s pride?
Are the days when we relaxed in
the comfort of the protection and
benefits granted to us by our constitution over?
Many South Africans see the
constitution as a refuge in these
testing times. Not only because
it ensures that the credibility of
the nation is preserved, but also

Photos courtesy of photos.mg.co.za

Say something
stupid

Cannibal
Salad

Blithering idiot - Even he
can’t believe himself
because it acts as a foundation for
unity and equality in our diverse
and divided country.
The presence of homosexuals,
and even the DA, in our society
should be celebrated as a great
achievement given where we have
come from. With regards to Zuma,
until he is proven guilty in a court
of law, he must be presumed innocent. If he is shown to have broken
the law, then the likes of Julius
Malema should embrace the finding as a judicial victory that can
only strengthen the republic.
If Malema and friends insist on
attacking the independent judiciary and our sovereign constitution,
then even the greatest optimist
will have trouble seeing hope.
The attack of these institutions
is the most obvious signal for
the path that many other African
states have chosen – the pursuit
of personal gain in place of the
broader good.
If South Africa is to live up to
its billing as a miracle nation and a
leader in the African renaissance,
then this is the toughest obstacle
that our fledgling democracy will
face.

Happiness is...
Tara Leverton

light on the horizon - Will
Barack Obama’s words translate
into deeds?
times a candidate will use rhetoric
just to please a certain crowd. So
take everything that’s said with a
pinch of salt.
The only question you would
have while reading this, is why
does this matter and why should
I care? The answer is: What happens in the US has a knock-on
effect on what happens in the
rest of the world, as demonstrated
by the current credit crunch and
economic slowdown being experienced across the globe. The next
White House administration could
play a major role through its foreign policy to what happens right
here in Africa.

THE world does not want you
happy. The world wants to kick
your teeth in. The world wants to
shove you down a dark hole and
make you stay there, pouring dead
fish onto you hourly. The world
hates your weasling little guts.
But you can still screw a few
drops of actual joy out of the
world’s clenched, spike-lined rectal muscles. All you require is the
need and the means. You have to
be able to want something; you
have to be able to get it.
The lack of need is responsible
for those aimless souls among us,
who flutter like chip packets on
the wind from course to course,
never quite sure of what they’re
looking for. The people who go
into medicine because their dad
wanted them to, and they couldn’t
be bothered to argue with him. The
people who find no satisfaction in
doing anything, but feel uncomfortable doing nothing. The people
who have always had everything
they could need.
Worse is the lack of means.
This is everyone who wanted
to attend varsity but couldn’t.
Everyone who wanted to change
the world, but didn’t know how, or
failed, or found that the way they

wanted the world changed wasn’t
the way everyone else wanted
it. Contentment becomes impossible when either of these states
of being continue for very long.
To have a chance at being happy,
one needs to move from a state
of needing something, to having
that need fulfilled, and right on to
needing something else. Having at
least the majority of these needs
fulfilled promotes confidence;
always needing something else
keeps you innovated. Possibly this
is why our SRC have encouraged
us to establish ‘feasible goals’ for
the semester ahead.
This all dawns on me after not
eating anything for twelve hours.
I am so hungry I can smell bark.
But I have, not ten feet away, a
sandwich. It is a glorious sandwich. There is cheese on it. There
is lettuce, and there are bits of
peppered cracker nestled within.
There is also a sauce that I have
been unable to identify. I do not
care if it is Extract of Botulism;
I have my sandwich. And I am
hungry. And, currently, I am very
happy indeed.
The world doesn’t want you to
be happy. If you get the chance,
seize it, dig your teeth into its
leathery hide and don’t let it get
away.

F02-58899B GradX Print Ad_p 7/24/08 3:39 PM Page 1
C

M

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Applications
now open
Super 14 - A whole new ball game

page 14

page 16

RES REFUGEES
UCT’S residences have had an
unsettling start to the year due to
the over-allocation of students for
the number of available rooms.
Students without accommodation
are termed ‘transit students’ whilst
they await vacancies. The Student
Accommodation Office, commonly known as Student Housing,
is responsible for the allocation
of students into residences. Overallocation will be resolved when
senior students opt to withdraw
or are not eligible to remain in
residence, thereby allowing new
students to occupy these rooms.
Many senior students returning to residence found that their
rooms had been reallocated. Upon
enquiring at Student Housing,
they were told that they could
not be accommodated in any of
the first-tier residences and would
have to make alternative living
arrangements. Both senior students and freshers who are in this
predicament have commented that
Student Housing administrative
staff has been rude and unhelpful
on this sensitive issue. Secondyear student, Robyn Jacka, complained that despite having applied
before the 2007 deadline and paying this year’s fees in full, Student
Housing did not provide a reason
as to why her name did not appear
on the list. There are students
from SADC countries who have
received letters of acceptance into
residences, but upon arrival had
nowhere to stay.
Residences have established
temporary dormitories in the common rooms and study areas to
deal with the overflow of transit
students. This situation is not ideal
for a prolonged period of time, as

transit students have very little
privacy, no bathrooms or study
areas. The transit students do not
have direct contact with Student
Housing. Instead, they have to
rely on Sub-Wardens to relay any
information.
Graça Machel Residence
reportedly has an estimated 30
students who they are unable to
accommodate, as they have already
reached their maximum capacity
of 382 students. Liebe Calitz, the
Sub-Warden in charge of Room
Allocations at Graça Machel, said,
‘the situation is stressful, with
students having their name on the
list one day and off the next.’ In
addition, half of the Graça House
Committee (HC) do not have
rooms allocated to them. They are
on a waiting list, having organised
and hosted their entire O-Week
schedule, whilst squatting in their
friends’ rooms. The Graça HC will
have to disband and re-elect new
members if there are no further
withdrawals from the residence.
The principal reason for this
confusion is that the deadline for
Summer Term fees is in dispute.
According to UCT policy, in order
to guarantee a place in residence,
a student has to apply by the 2007
deadline, pay any outstanding
amount on fees and be academically eligible to continue studying.
Student Housing expects the
fees to have been paid by 31
January 2008, whereas the Fees
Office expects payment by the
specified registration date for 2008
full year. If fees have not been paid
by the end of January, Student
Housing will have removed the
student from their list. The Fees
Office blames Student Housing and
vice versa, whilst the Admissions

page 7

THE RAG Olympics took a
dreadful turn on Thursday afternoon after a Smuts Hall student
was seriously injured during the
Stair Races event. The contestant,
whose name is being withheld,
was taken to Vincent Pallotti
Hospital within an hour of the
incident. Je was in a stable condition at time of going to print.
After plunging down Jammie

SAXXY SEllERS - UCT students making hearts skip in morning traffic
Coordinator Portfolio, told
VARSITY that he was trying to
find off-campus accommodation
for the transit students.
Thando Vilakazi is the SRC
Representative in charge of liaising with Student Housing. When
asked to comment on the situation, he replied, ‘I would have to
clear any statement with a lot of
people.’ When asked about his
personal dealings with Student
Housing, he said he found them to
be ‘fantastic’.
Mr Raphoto, the Director of
Student Housing told VARSITY

Office takes no responsibility.
Many students embroiled in
this situation do not know where
they stand with UCT. Third-year
student, Tina Swigelaar, said, ‘I
thought Summer Term was part
of the 2008 year and therefore
fees were only due in February.
But when I wasn’t on the list for
res, I went to enquire at Student
Housing and they said I had to pay
my outstanding amount, which
I did immediately and then they
gave me back my room in Fuller.’
Siliziwe Mbulelo Ncanywa of
the SRC, who holds the Resident

that they had allowed for 160
transit places and at the moment
only 12 students remain in transit.
He added that Student Housing
will assist students in finding off
campus accommodation.
The Wardens of UCT residences have no control over the
number of students sent to them.
They simply try and make the
transit students as comfortable as
possible. In the meantime transit
students have to continue waiting
in the hope that accommodation
will become available.

Housing head resigns
Zerene Haddad
UCT’s Head of Student Housing,
Hilda Andrews, handed in her
resignation last week without an
explanation. When VARSITY
requested an interview, she
responded by saying ‘you should
be careful not to exceptionalise
my resignation.’ Andrews said she
would consider granting an interview, but has since failed to contact VARSITY.
This resignation comes at
a highly pressurised time for
Student Housing. Student housing has received substantial media
attention regarding the over-allocation of students to residences.
VARSITY tried to establish
whether the media controversy
led to Andrews’ resignation. A
member within the UCT residence
structure said: ‘Nobody realises
the pressure she’s working under.
Although she is a manager, Hilda
has to answer to other people. She
gets told to over-allocate, it’s not
her decision.’
The Director of Student
Housing and Residence Life,
Khotso Raphoto, confirmed
Andrews’ resignation. He said, ‘It

Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

is her own private matter. It is
important to note that the university has a 10% annual staff
turnover and therefore this resignation, together with other resignations in Student Housing and
Residence Life should be seen in
this context.’
A Residence Facilities Officer
told VARSITY that Ms Andrews
‘always treated me with respect.
She was helpful with placing my
students and I’ve never had words
with her.’ However, a Residence
Sub-Warden who preferred to
remain anonymous said, ‘she was
always rude to me.’ Yet another
Sub-Warden, reported to have
had an argument with Andrews
deferred comment saying: ‘It’s
not professional, as I am a UCT
employee. Nothing constructive
can be gained from my comment as Ms Andrews has already
resigned.’
Despite several attempts,
Student Housing failed to respond
to VARSITY’s requests for an
interview. The situation regarding the plight of transit students
has been defused. Most have been
assigned to self-catering residences.

steps in the four-person relay, the
student rolled over onto the plaza
and lay still. Organisers took several seconds to realise that he
was hurt, and a small crowd of
his teammates and RAG committee members quickly gathered. A
paramedic on standby immediately put him on an IV drip and
oxygen.
Reliable
sources
told
VARSITY that the team had
been drinking prior to the races.

THE future of Clarinus Village is
currently being negotiated between
UCT and the Province. Formerly a
nursing-home, Clarinus became a
UCT residence nearly 20 years ago
as part of a lease agreement with
Groote Schuur Hospital/Province.
The lease is due to expire before
next year potentially leaving more
than 600 students who live there
homeless. As of yet, there is no
definite say on whether the lease
is able to be renewed or not.
Linus Naik, a Clarendon House
Senior Sub-Warden, admits that
Student Housing has been vague
regarding the details on this matter. No further information has
been given, apart from informing
them last year that the lease was
due to expire in October 2008.
With no apparent effort having
been made to provide alternative
accommodation, he is only left
hoping that the lease had somehow been sorted out.
Khotso Raphoto, the Director
of Student Housing and Residence

Life, told VARSITY that our queries were being forwarded on to
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor
Nhlapo ‘for a comprehensive
executive response, as the lease
agreements are an executive delegation.’

‘the VC is leading
the search for a solution personally’
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor
commented that, ‘Over the last
weeks it has become clear that
the Student Housing perspective
on this matter is considerably
less important than the legal history between the Province and
UCT.’ He said the situation is
being viewed so seriously that
‘the VC is leading the search for a
solution personally’. Nhlapo confirmed that meetings were being
set up at the highest levels with

Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

VARSITY newspaper is the offical
student newspaper at UCT. Due
to our monopoly on the written
word at UCT, we have captured
the entire literate market, and hold
them in thrall. So if you’d like to
get your message across to the
student populace, VARSITY is the
perfect platform.
If you are looking for expe-

RAG does not supply alcohol and
each participant signs an indemnity form before the races. When
asked if anything like this had
happened before, Sarah Enticott,
a member of the RAG Olympic
committee, said, ‘...broken fingers, but nothing major. Nothing
like this.’
Continued on Page 2...

the Province to secure a long term
continuance of the leases.
A resident Medicine student
Martin Verheij, expressed his concerns to VARSITY, ‘With a current shortage in residence space
already and with all the students
in transit, it would be irresponsible
on the part of UCT as a whole and
a severe lack of foresight not to
ensure accommodation for their
students in advance.’
The name Clarinus Village
comes from the two residences
next to each other, Clarendon and
Carinus, for males and females
respectively. The majority of the
students in Clarinus are medical students. It is situated close
to Medical Campus and Groote
Schuur hospital, and provides
convenient accommodation for
Health Science students. The loss
of this residence would create a
huge gap in the housing system,
which is already under strain due
to the high demand for placement
in residence.

THE 83rd UCT RAG Float Parade
took place on Saturday. This
year the theme was Homegrown
Heroes/Proudly South African.
Smuts and Fuller took first place
using the investigative crimefighting unit, the Scorpions, as
inspiration for their float’s theme.
Varietas came second place with
their braai-themed float, followed
by College House whose creation
was influenced by the cartoon
strip, Madam and Eve.
The parade is a vibrant event,
and always leaves the Cape Town
Central Business District full of
life. The event is highly anticipated and attracts families for a
day out. This is RAG’s longestrunning event, and has become a
Cape Town tradition. However,
there is a fair amount of organising
involved. Friday was float-building night, where Goodhope FM
broadcasted live from the UCT
Tennis Club. Twelve floats were
built comprising of ten residences, the RAG and the Engineering
Faculty float.
The floats parade is headlined
by Pick ‘n Pay, as it has been for
many years. Goodhope FM was at
the parade along with the SACS
Marching Band, lending their
support. Floats Project Manager,
Jonathan Cotton, commented during the preparation week that, ‘it’s
going to be fantastic!’
Floats are made using reams
of coloured plastic, which are fed
through wire mesh, resulting in

ODWA STEMELA AnD JULIE
ATMORE
LAST Monday Grade 12 learners
at Sinethemba Secondary School
in Phillipi protested over the
absence of competent Economics
teachers. According to the learners, there had not been an adequate
teacher since the beginning of the
year. They made several attempts
to discuss the matter with their
principal, Mr Poopedi, but they
felt that they ‘were not taken seriously.’
Whilst protesting, the Grade
12s emptied garbage bins on the
school grounds, smashed classroom windows and wrote encouraging slogans such as, ‘Go ahead,
strive for what you believe is right,
comrades!’ All learners were sent
home early after classes were
disrupted. Although other grades
were affected by the strike, the
learners believed that the disruption of classes was the only way
to be heard.
Sinethemba Secondary School
is affiliated with UCT through
the Media School and Township

page 11

More parking for students on the way
aleSSaNdro roSSi

Photos courtesy of Justin Andrews

‘Taxi-shuttles’ replace Jammies
nIcOLE JOnkLASS
ON 31 March, the Amalgamated
Transport Services (ATS) is scheduled to start operating a shuttle
service for UCT students and
staff between the Claremont and
Mowbray taxi interchanges and
the Jammie shuttle terminus on
Lower Campus. This free service
will make use of 15-seater minibus taxis.
The terms and conditions under
which the service will be operated
are outlined in a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) signed
in November 2007 by UCT and
the various taxi associations forming part of the ATS. The MOU
was agreed upon after a period
of negotiation, facilitated by the
Claremont Improvement District
Company between UCT and the
ATS. This was prompted by a
dispute, which questioned whether Jammie Shuttle was allowed
to operate along the ClaremontTugwell-Mowbray route in accordance with the terms stipulated by
its operating licence.
The ATS are contracted to

operate the shuttle service weekdays from 6 am to 9 am for a twoyear trial period during term times
only. The service is designed as
a ‘peak lopping’ service aimed at
satisfying the increased demand

‘aimed at satisfying the increased
demand for oncampus transport’
for on-campus transport. During
the operating times, Jammie shuttles currently operating on the
Claremont-Tugwell-Mowbray
route will be deployed to other
routes on campus. These Jammie
Shuttles will resume operations
along their Claremont route outside of the 6am to 9am timeslot.
In an article written by Deputy
Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Martin
Hall, which appeared in the Cape
Argus, he states that ‘because use

Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

rience in a professional media
environment, which is fun and
‘quirky’, send an application to
varsitynewspaper@gmail.com
Attach a letter of motivation,
a brief CV, with a brief portfolio
piece of writting you have done
before (not compulsory). Along
with anything else that might help
us get to know you.

Debating League. When the
tutors went out to Sinethemba on
Monday and Tuesday, there were
no students on the property.
VARSITY contacted Mr
Poopedi, who said, ‘The teachers were hired on contract. Since
they are government contracts,
they weren’t renewed.’ He assured
VARSITY that the situation had
been resolved as of Wednesday
afternoon. ‘Permission had been
given to us to hire new teachers.
They are currently in class teaching,’ stated Mr Poopedi.
Grade 12 learner, Thobekani
Lose, commented that, ‘the school
system was not being fair to us,
as there are not even bursaries
for the Economics students.’
Bursaries are offered to learners
studying Science, but no financial
aid is granted to learners studying
Business as of yet.
Incidents of this nature do not
receive sufficient media coverage.
Instead, this is dismissed and learners at schools, such as Sinethemba,
are left disadvantaged with no
concern being shown in the final
years of their education.

Coke Fest brings rock’s best

page 3

of the existing Jammie Shuttle is
expanding rapidly… the present
fleet of buses operated by Sibanye
is inadequate.’ He adds that instead
of the University acquiring more
busses, UCT management has
opted to enter into a partnership
with the ATS. It is also hoped
that the service will ease traffic
congestion in Claremont and surrounding areas.
In an interview with VARSITY,
John Critien, Director of Properties
and Services at UCT, said that
in the negotiations leading up to
the MOU ‘stress was placed on
safety of commuters and quality
of service’. The ATS are subject
to the same penalties for noncompliance with the service level
agreement that apply to Sibanye.
‘Every vehicle that is to be used
for the service by ATS is subject to
inspection and if it does not meet
with our standards, it will not be
used,’ says Critien. He adds that
‘the vehicles must conform to the
new taxi recap specifications and
be in good order’.
Continued on page 2...

IT HAS been confirmed that the
New Science Lecture Theatre
(NSLT) will finally be demolished
to make way for a three-story
parking bay, say university officials.
‘Demolishment has been in
the pipeline since 2005,’ says
Neville Brown, Senior Manager
of UCT’s Traffic and Congestion
Department. ‘With the increase
in the number of students at UCT,
the current parking bays just aren’t
sufficing,’ he says. ‘We have considered other options, but we eventually decided that the demolition
of the NSLT would be the most
feasible.’
His reasons are three-fold, he
explained: The NSLT is one of the
most under-utilised lecture venues
on Upper Campus, and it is close
enough to University Avenue to
allow vehicles to enter and exit
the parking bay with minimised
disturbance to surrounding lecture venues. Most importantly,
the problem of a lack of parking
for undergraduates will be solved.
The parkade is to be exclusively
for undergraduates, freeing up
other parking areas on campus for
visitors, postgrads, lecturers etc.
The parking bay, which has
aptly been coined the NTLP (New
Third Level Parking) will boast
1,500 parking bays and should
be completed by 2010, says the
Senior Manager of Traffic and
Congestion. ‘Students will feel
the punch,’ he says, ‘Construction
will start in April this year and
will only cease during exam times,
which have already been, on our
request, majorly condensed in
order to maximise our construction time.’ Preliminary building
has commenced on the Physics
Building. The facade is going to
be re-done in a mosaic, depicting the solar system. This is in
order to show UCT’s commitment to diversity and the quest
for knowledge. It also contributes
to the ‘Brightening Up Campus
Initiative’ which was launched last
week in a private ceremony. Once
the mosaic is unveiled at the end
of the year, there will be an inauagural service involving students.
Neville Brown warns that
many lectures may be temporarily
forced into Meridian, in order to
ease the shortage of venues. He
further counsels that food vendors
near the construction site, including McHarry’s, Souper Sandwich
and Rainbow Chicken, may have
to be shifted to other campuses
until about 2012.

A MEMBER of the SRC was
arrested for being in possession
of a stolen laptop. He cannot be
named as he has not yet pleaded.
The laptop was stolen from a room
in Liesbeeck Gardens Residence.
The SRC member was arrested
on Saturday evening, and detained
until Tuesday morning. He was
then transferred to Wynberg
Magistrate’s Court, where he
was released on a warning. He is
scheduled to appear in court on
5 May.
VARSITY spoke to the arresting officer, who said that, pending
investigation, the charges could be
upgraded to theft. The police took
fingerprints from the room once
the case had been reported.
The SRC member maintains
that he had bought the laptop
unaware that it was stolen. When
VARSITY requested an interview,
he refused, saying that, ‘the matter
is still under investigation.’ The

question remains: who sold the
laptop to the SRC member.
Moonira Khan, the head of
the Department of Student Affairs,
says that the SRC Constitution
makes provision for disciplinary
procedures if a member has been
found guilty of a criminal offence.
Membership of the SRC can be
terminated if the member brings
the SRC into disrepute by being
found guilty of a serious offence.
Khan says: ‘An internal institutional investigation is underway
and the matter has been reported
to the UCT Student Tribunal. As
is the case with any formal investigation, the due process must be
allowed to take place unhindered,
and the rights of the individual
must be respected in terms of
legal provisions of ‘innocent until
proven guilty.’’
‘In the interim, (the member)
has the right to continue to fulfill
his academic and SRC obligations
until such time that the investigation is concluded and the out-

come known. Consequently, decisions regarding (the member’s)
tenure as SRC member will then
be reviewed and appropriatelyinformed decisions will be taken
as necessary.’
The SRC released a statement which said: ‘The SAPS and
Campus Protection Services are
currently conducting independent
investigations on the matter. The
SRC is of the belief that it will
also be important for all concerned
to await the decisions of the judiciary process that is unfolding,
with the understanding that it is
the outcome of this that will determine (the member’s) status within
the SRC and the University.
‘The work of the SRC will
however not be interrupted by this
incident and measures will be put
in place to ensure that we continue
to do justice to our mandate which
is to effectively represent the students of UCT.’

from the residences they were
based at, to the main offices of the
Department for Student Housing
and Residence Life. This is in
order to develop student life within residences and to become more
focused on all student housing
facilities.
The selection process has
already begun, with candidates for
the posts of Warden being shortlisted as of last week for those
residences which need to choose
new wardens. The candidates will
go through a series of interviews
with members of Student Housing
as well as an ‘interrogation’ session, in which the students of the
residence question the candidate.
In the past, the students have
used these sessions to determine
whether the candidate is suited to

the residence and have then made
their choice of Warden based on
the outcome.
The decision of who will be
Warden is a joint decision which
should take into account the preferences of both students and Student
Housing. However, sources told
VARSITY that some residences
were not present at the shortlisting consultation which has left
students wary of how the rest of
the selection will proceed.
Mr Raphoto also stated that the
residence wardens, who are leaving their residences, as is the case
at Fuller Hall and Leo Marquard,
are leaving for personal reasons
and not as a result of restructuring,
as was rumoured. The positions
of part-time wardens will remain
the same.

Residence wardens restructured
tateNda GoredeMa

bye-bye NSlt - UCT’s much
loved NSLT building will no
longer be a feature on campus
once the triple storey parkade is
complete
‘Medical Campus has made it
clear that they want the ‘Chinese
Shop’ and we intend on giving it
to them,’ he says.
Neville anticipates some negative response from staff and students alike, but says negotiations
with University Management are
complete; the decision is final, and
no further correspondence will be
entered into.

RESIDENCE life at UCT is undergoing changes, with the restructuring of the full-time Warden position at UCT.
The Director of Student
Housing, Mr Khotso Raphoto,
spoke to VARSITY explaining
that, ‘the original idea of restructuring the full time Warden’s position was proposed in 2005, and
was initiated in order to better
the implementation of developing student life and to ensure that
the residences at UCT were being
effectively and efficiently managed in line with the policy of the
Department for Student Housing
and Residence Life.’
The restructuring entails moving the four full-time wardens

out of thiS world - This is
the final design which will be set
into the side of the R.W James
physics building.

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN
TO EVERYONE

Senior editorial postings
[Applications close 14 August, interviews to be held on 16 August]

Editor
Deputy Editor
Chief Sub-EDITOR

Editorial postings:

[Applications close 20 August, interviews to be held on 22 August]

Editorial postings involve editing and managing the relevant sections. You will also be in charge of writers
who will work under you. You need to be able to write in the relevant stylistic structures, experience in writing
and editing is preferable. Experience in page design and layout is a plus.

News editor
Opinions editor
Sports editor
Features editor
*The Humour, Arts and Entertainment and, the Business and Technology sections, will all be falling under the
general banner of the Features section. Specialised writing positions are also open.

Images Editor

The Images Editor is responsible for all the graphics and photographs in the paper, They are in charge of
photographers. Experience in image editing and manipulation is essential. Knowledge of the Adobe product
suite is a plus.
The Design and Layout Editor is in charge of laying out the paper, ensuring everything is presented in a professional manner. They are responsible for the look and feel of the paper. Knowledge of Adobe In-Design is
a plus, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn are essential.

Ready to Rumble- the Ikeys and Maties line up with Francois Pienaar and officials to sing the National Anthem before the Varsity Cup Final last Monday.

ANCYL slams SRC saga continues
SHAWCO
Hallie HalleR

ZeRene Haddad
LAST WEEK, a controversial
statement was issued under the
ANC Youth League’s emblem
and posted up all around campus
including residences. It claimed
to be in commemoration of Chris
Hani on the 15th anniversary of
his death.
The statement openly attacks
SHAWCO and UCT as having a
‘liberal character’ and using ‘the
same funds that make it to its coffers to bankroll the liberal reactionary’s’ (sic).
In addition, it states, ‘We
are aware of organisations like
SHAWCO, whom give our people
fish and do not teach then how to
fish...’ (sic)
It concludes with a claim that,
‘we will convince, mobilise and
act against the reactionary forces
of this time. Which also include
immobilised, reactionary and liberal black Africans… and many
whites.’
When asked for comment,
Jon Hodgson, Chairperson of
SHAWCO told VARSITY, ‘We
are not going to respond to this
until we know exactly who wrote
it.’ The statement is ‘signed off’
by Mosa Setlaba, a member of the
Executive Committee of the UCT
ANCYL. However, she denies
being involved in the issuing of
the statement.
The statement was written
by Nqabayethu Malghas (Head
of Political Education), Luyolo
Ngcuka (Head Internal Affairs)
and Thami Hlatswayo (Deputy
Chairperson).
Malghas told VARSITY that
‘we needed to put somebody’s
contact details on the statement,

so we just used hers (Setlaba).’
He later said: ‘She deals with
the administration and people who
want to get hold of us. Its constitutionally enshrined, it’s not a
deployment by the executive.’
Setlaba is a member of
SHAWCO, which exacerbates the
fact that her name was wrongfully
used in the statement. Malghas
indicated that the ANCYL wanted
to bring the debate into the public
forum. He invited SHAWCO to
respond to the ANCYL statement.
Campus Protection Services
were instructed to take down the
posters. Many students are outraged by the statement.
Trish Moeketsi of RAG said,
‘As a development agency, RAG
like SHAWCO, seeks to develop
the future leaders of the country.
We were shocked and disappointed with the ANCYL’s disparaging
remarks about other commendable
organisations.’
Nicholus Tende Makofane, the
Chairperson of SASCO at UCT,
said (in his personal capacity):
‘With regard to community outreach, what we should be doing
is to unite our efforts, instead of
making comments which serve to
condescend to others. SHAWCO
aims to make a positive impact on
society.’
Elvis
Sekhaolelo,
Deputy
Chairperson of the Black
Management Forum said, ‘We had
no idea about this. We’re alerting the provincial and national
authorities of BMF as they should
know about it, since our name was
used without consent.’
Garreth
Bloor,
Media
Communications person for
DASO commented, ‘It’s clear that
this wasn’t thought out properly.’

TWO SRC members are currently under investigation on two
separate incidents regarding laptops: The first involves the SRC
President, Thulani Mandinginye,
who reported an SRC laptop missing whilst it was in his care earlier
in the year. The second involves
a member, that cannot be named,
who was arrested two weeks ago,
after being found in possession of
a stolen laptop.

Mandinginye is currently being
investigated on charges of negligence and abuse of UCT property.
In an official statement, the SRC
President claims to have travelled
to Johannesburg with an SRCowned laptop for use pertaining
to SRC-related duties during the
November-February vacation

period.
Mandinginye said that
he reported the missing laptop to Jerome September from
the Department of Student
Affairs immediately. However,
Mandinginye did not alert Gideon
Moyo, the SRC member responsible for the council’s property,
which is required by the SRC constitution. In the Student Assembly,
Moyo said, ‘I did not know the laptop had been taken.’ Mandinginye
obtained authorisation to take the
laptop from Jerome September.
He says that it was stolen after
being placed in his luggage which
went into the hold of the airplane.
The second SRC member
awaits trial after being arrested.
The member was found in possession of a laptop, allegedly stolen
from Liesbeek Gardens residence.

SAPS, Campus Protection Services
and UCT Student Tribunal investigations are thus far inconclusive.
Nevertheless, the SAPS arresting
officer did clarify that charges
against the SRC member could
be upgraded to theft, pending the
investigation. The SRC member
has not yet confirmed how he will
plead, and awaits trial on 5 May.
SRC Secretary General, Thando
Vilikazi, did not comment on the
measures that the SRC would
take, should either of these SRC
members be found guilty. The
SRC Constitution allows for disciplinary measures and/or dismissal,
should an SRC member be found
to have committed a criminal
offence. At this point of the academic year, however, the constitution does not allow for the SRC to
appoint new members.

Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

You need to be available on the
relative dates for an interview.
The posts are not monetarily
compensated, as we are a development agency.

Design and Layout editor

Political Parties profiled

NSLT to be SrC member arrested
demolished

hours of work having to be put
in. For some residences this is
compulsory, whereas in others it
is merely encouraged. Kopano
head student, Dulan Simons,
emphasises that the floats are
always a big event on their calendar and never expects his residence to miss out on participating.
Simons praises the event and
believes that ‘seeing children’s
faces light up at the sight of a
colourful float with hoards
of mad people around it, will
make anyone who doubts the
credibility and purpose of this
event, think twice about uttering another negative comment.’
All proceeds raised from the
street collection, which took place
on the day, will go towards RAG’s
goal of raising R1.5m for their
beneficiary, SHAWCO.

FIFTEEN hours of community
service, an apology to the UCT
student body, and the replacement of the SRC laptop was the
punishment imposed upon SRC
President, Thulani Madinginye at
last week’s student assembly. This
motion was passed by 24 votes to
the 14 student assembly members
who called for Madinginye’s suspension.
Votes were cast by means of
a secret ballot and were based
on the recommendations of two
separate investigations into the
matter of the SRC laptop, which
went missing in January while in
Madinginye’s care. These were
the SRC Disciplinary Committee
(DC) and the Commission of
Inquiry, established independently
from the SRC as a check on the
DC’s findings. The outcomes of
these investigations were reviewed
at last week’s sitting, which took
place on 23 April.
Madinginye was found guilty
on counts of the abuse of SRC
property and negligence by the
SRC DC. The President failed
to follow the correct protocol, or
obtain the required permission in
borrowing the laptop as stipulated
by SRC resource policies. The
Department of Student Affairs
confirmed that taking the laptop
home for the holidays did not
constitute an SRC-related event,
and should not have been in his
possession at the time.
Madinginye maintains that
‘there was no abuse of SRC property. I am a very responsible person
and have always been, the student
body need not worry about me
being irresponsible in any way.’
The findings of the investigations confirmed that the President
was negligent in placing the laptop
in his check-in luggage and thereby
letting it out of his sight. He also
failed to secure his baggage with
cable ties. Madinginye acknowledged negligence at the student
assembly held on 12 March.
The Commission of Inquiry

further suggested that the President
had attempted to defeat the ends of
justice by not reporting the incident to the SAPS. Madinginye
realised that the laptop was missing after he departed the Cape
Town airport. Thus, the incident
fell under the jurisdiction of both
the airline security personnel and
the police.
According to the Commission
of Inquiry report, Madinginye
stated on 12 March that he had
reported the matter to the police.
This statement was recorded in
the minutes of the meeting. On
23 April, he denied making this
claim.
A further inconsistency exists
regarding the date on which the
President reported the incident
to the airline security personnel.
Madinginye claims that the airline
confirmed he had reported the
matter on 10 January. The airline
security’s records show that it was
the 29 January.
The matter has since been
handed over to the University
Student Tribunal. The Commission
of Inquiry recommended that
Madinginye be suspended from his
position as SRC president while
the investigation is still pending. The SRC DC recommended
that Madinginye resign within 24
hours, or that the SRC vote on a
motion of no confidence. The SRC
voted on the motion of no confidence, which did not pass.
SRC Vice-President Internal,
Garreth Bloor, commented on
the harshness of the motion of
no confidence as a punishment.
Consequently, the SRC proposed
the alternative; censure (community service, a public apology
and the replacement of the laptop)
without suspension. Madinginye
is required to replace the laptop
with his own funds by the end of
his presidential tenure.
The President declined in commenting on the outcome of last
week’s student assembly as he did
not believe that it would change
anything.

photo by Taybah Jaffar

An Engineer’s Guide to SEX

page 8

Photos courtesy of Justin Andrews

Up the Creek Music Festival

ShawCo SPoRtS week SuCCeSS - children from SHAWCO’s sports project enjoyed the Stormers game
on Saturday to end off the week-long sports initiative.

Campus robbery ends in gunfire
Rémy Ngamije
ON Saturday, 19 April, a student
fell victim to a gun-robbery on
UCT’s Middle Campus in the early
afternoon. The two men involved
in the robbery were pursued by
a nearby Campus Security Guard
and opened fire on him. They
managed to escape.
The third-year UCT student,
Lesley Conolly, arrived at Middle
Campus for a debating function.
Realising that she had been directed to the wrong venue, she then
returned to her vehicle where she
was accosted by two men wielding guns. They demanded that she
hand over her handbag and laptop. Insisting that she had nothing
worthy of stealing, the two men

grabbed her laptop, her handbag
as well as her car keys and proceeded to walk away.
Alerting a nearby Campus
Security Guard, Conolly managed
to have the two men pursued. The
perpetrators, who had an escape
vehicle ready, managed to evade
arrest, firing shots at the security guard. The security guard and
Conolly declared the incident to
the police, had an investigation
docket opened and her bank card
cancelled.
At 8 pm that same evening, a
call came through to the police,
alerting them to a bag that had
been retrieved in Gugulethu, which
turned out to belong to Conolly. It
was returned to her, together with
all of her possessions except for

her laptop.
In a statement, Conolly said
that she had been very impressed
by the manner in which CPS
responded to the incident, despite
the danger and the rapidity of the
robbery: ‘He (the CPS Guard)
chased after them without any
hesitation at all. UCT has also
been really good about it, they
sent the Head of Communications
to talk to me, offered counselling and have emailed the entire
student body alerting them to the
incident.’
The UCT student body has
been urged to take more consideration when travelling around the
campus at all times, especially
after hours.

Tragic loss of Prof
ZeReNe haddad
PROFESSOR Kevin Rochford
of UCT was murdered last
Tuesday outside his home in Little
Mowbray. It is believed he was
the victim of an attempted hijacking. A UCT student who lived
nearby rushed to the scene to help
after she heard the gunshots. She
administered CPR but was unable
to save Professor Rochford.
Well-loved and influential at
UCT, his death has come as a shock
to the community. He held the post
of Associate Professor of Science
Education in the Humanities
Faculty. He was involved in education for more than 30 years, and
at UCT his influence extended to

Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

athletics.
Prof Rochford graduated with
a BSc from Melbourne University.
He then gained a BEd and MEd
with distinction, and a PhD, from
UCT. Beyond his role in education
his involvement stretched to various sporting activities especially
the Two Oceans Marathon which
he participated in since the 1970s.
In 1990 he was instrumental in
bringing about the Two Oceans
race on Good Friday for people
who choose not to run in the
main Saturday event for religious
reasons.
Tragically, Prof Rochford is
the second professor that UCT
has lost to violence in the past
six months. Aged 64, he has left
behind his wife and child.

Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

Support Staff:

[Applications close 20 August, interviews to be held on 22 August]

Operations manager:

The Ops Manager is required to maintain the VARSITY office and help
keep it running smoothly. He/she is also responsible for liaising with the
VARSITY printers.

Advertising manager:

Ad Managers are needed to source advertising, which provides the
majority of the funding needed to keep VARSITY running.

Marketing manager:

The Marketing Manager is responsible for running and managing the
VARSITY brand on campus and letting the general population of UCT
know what VARSITY is about.

IT manager:

The IT Manager is responsible for making sure the computers, software
and file servers are kept in a running state in the VARSITY office.

Staff positions:

[Applications close 28 August, interviews to be held 30 August]

Writers:

We are looking for permanent writing staff who would be available to
write a minimum of one piece per edition. Writing experience is a plus;
enthusiasm is essential. Any one from first years to triple PhDs can
apply. If you feel you want to write for a certain section please indicate
that, as senior writers positions are available.

Subbers:

Subbing staff are responsible for fact-checking the paper. They ensure
that there are no grammatical errors and that stylistic integrity is mantained. Past experience is not required. However, an interest in the
English language and attention to detail are musts. We will be prepared
to train you in this discipline.

Varsity, the official student newspaper since 1942, is committed to the principles of equality and democracy

10

Focus

Volume 66
Number 8

FOREIGN INTOLERANCE AT UCT

Snubbing Xenophobia Taxi terror
Seamus Duggan
JEAN Sabwa is a citizen of the
Democratic Republic of Congo
and until recently had been living in Philippi-East with his wife
and three children. While his
name may not have any relevance
to much of UCT’s community,
many will recognise his face if
they saw it.
Jean is a master’s student
in the Department of Statistical
Science and often invigilates
undergraduate stats tests. He is
currently living in Fuller Hall on
Upper Campus, with his family,
after they were chased from their
home in Philippi.
From Monday to Thursday,
Jean had been working on campus and had seen very little of his
family. On Thursday afternoon,
amid a cloud of rumours that the
xenophobic attacks that had been
plaguing South Africa were about
to hit Cape Town, Jean went back
to be with them.
During the night, he received
warning calls from friends, cautioning that the attacks had started
in Dunoon and advising him to
find somewhere safe until the
danger had passed. However, with
a limited cash flow and a young
family to take care of, there were

not many options available, so
Jean decided to stay at his house
until the morning. When morning came, so did the police, who
informed the Sabwa family that
they had to leave, as the area was
no longer safe for them.
They were all taken to a police
station along with another 800
other foreigners. Jean was instructed to go back to his house with
police officers to fetch clothes for
himself, his wife and his children.
On his return to the station, he
realised that the conditions were
dangerous for his children, most
notably his 3-month-old baby
who, at such a young age was the
most susceptible to disease amid
the poor conditions. Nevertheless,
Jean was once more constricted
of any alternative options and had
to stay, regardless of the environment.
During the first night at the
station, Jean received a call from
his neighbour informing him that
his house and been broken into.
Due to the level of antagonism in
the area, neither he nor the police
were able to return to the house in
order to assess the damage.
Shortly after this low point,
the Sabwa’s were finally given
a ledge to stand on when Jean
recognised one of the volunteers

as the son of his thesis supervisor. The man was stunned to see
a familiar face in the crowd and
immediately organised for Jean
to go home with him, the rest
of the family followed along the
next day.
Despite Jean humbly asserting that his host need not worry
anybody about what was happening, the shocked man informed
his father, Jean’s supervisor, of
the situation. Professor Stewart
spread the word at the university and Jean and his family were
moved into Fuller Hall.
The attacks have left Jean
angry, but with a remarkable
calmness he asserts that he will
not make any decisions about his
future while he is in this state.
Instead, Jean plans to finish his
masters and then decide whether
he will stay in South Africa or
go back to the DRC to apply the
skills he has learned where they
are most needed.
It is an attitude that puts the
perpetrators to shame. Even in the
face of the ignorance and hatred
that embarrassed the nation, Jean
remains buoyant. ‘Every time I
meet a new person it is like my
arm is growing longer,’ he states
cheerfully ‘our strength is in our
diversity.’

UCT’s Response

Nicole Jonklass talks to Martin Hall about UCT’s actions following the xenophobic attacks
Nicole Jonklass
BEFORE and during the time of
UCT’s June examinations last
semester, various UCT staff and
students assisted refugees and
immigrants who had been displaced by the wave of xenophobic
violence that affected the country,
forming part of the University’s
‘first response’ to the crisis.
UCT’s response
Xenophobic violence first erupted in Cape Town on Thursday, 22
May, in Dunoon, Milnerton. The
next day, former Vice-Chancellor
Professor Njabulo S. Ndebele
established a Crisis Response Task
Team and appointed Deputy ViceChancellors Professors Martin
Hall and Thandabantu Nhlapo as
its convenors. The Task Team
held an open meeting the following Monday attended by approximately 200 people from the UCT
Community.
A report signed by the two
DVCs titled ‘UCT’s ‘First
Response’ to the current crisis’
states that the University was
involved in three areas of support.
According to the First Response
report, these were ‘providing supplies, assisting with support for
refugees at holding sites [including legal support], and providing
health support’.
The report states that the Task
Team worked with SHAWCO ‘as
the main UCT agency for coordinating direct support’. As one of
its key interventions, SHAWCO
set up collection points at its offic-

es and at residences, calling on
UCT students and staff to donate
non-perishable foodstuffs, baby
supplies and clothing, which were
distributed amongst displaced refugees.
The UCT Law Clinic provided
legal assistance to hundreds of
refugees and cooperated with the
United Nations High Commission
for Refugees and its Senior
Protection Officer, Mr Arvin
Gupta, who visited Cape Town.
It also intervened in some cases
where refugees’ rights were not
being upheld at shelters.
According to the First Response
report, SHAWCO Health provided medical assistance to refugees. Students from the Medical
Science Faculty were invited to
volunteer in SHAWCO Health
clinics. The report also states that
Social Work and Psychology staff
and students assisted with counselling and trauma management
for refugees, which was coordinated through SHAWCO Health
and Health Sciences.
One of the University’s very
first responses to the crisis was
to make Jammie Shuttle busses
available in the weekend following the first Cape Town attacks
to transport refugees to places
of safety. In an interview with
VARSITY, DVC Prof Hall said,
over 2,000 refugees were transported from places such as the
Rondebosch Police Station and
the Rondebosch United Church
that weekend. He added that the
University ‘provided more than
200 mattresses out of the residence system, mostly ... to places

of safety in the Rondebosch area’.
In June, the Crisis Response
Task Team asked members of
the UCT community, including
all those attending the graduation
ceremony on 13 June, to wear a
white ribbon around their wrists
as a form of ‘visible solidarity’
with the victims of xenophobia
and violence.
Hall said that he was happy
with how the Crisis Response
Task Team responded to the crisis. ‘There was often quite a lot
of disagreement about appropriate
strategies,’ said Hall, ‘but that was
really all in the spirit of trying to
find the best way of intervention.’
He said that although the Crisis
Response Task Team was no longer active, ‘certainly SHAWCO
and Health students and definitely
the [Law] Clinic have continued
to be active’.
How was the UCT community affected?
According to Hall, the University
‘tried to find out, and ... would
continue to try to find out, if
any of our staff or students were
directly affected’ by the xenophobic violence. He stated that as far
as he knew, the University assisted
every staff and student member
who needed help.
He said that the June exams
were not at all disrupted and that
‘if any, very few’ students asked
for their exams to be deferred
because of the xenophobic violence.
Hall said that students and

UCT student Melissa van der Ross tells VARSITY how she encountered xenophobia during a Sunday morning taxi ride.
Nicole Jonklass
WHILE travelling on a Mowbrayto-Claremont taxi on a Sunday
morning in April last semester, a
female, Namibian, UCT student
(who asked not to be named) was
harassed by a South African man
to pay his taxi fare.
On the same taxi trip, South
African Melissa van der Ross,
a third-year B.Com. Financial
Accounting student at UCT, challenged this man as well as another
South African male on the seemingly xenophobic statements they
had made in the taxi.
Van der Ross told Varsity that
she and her Zimbabwean boyfriend, Vincent Chambati, were
travelling to Newlands and boarded the taxi in Mowbray.
She said that ‘[o]ne of the
first things that was bothering
[her] that day were the stares [she
and Chambati] were getting from
other Coloured people and mostly
black South Africans. I figured
that was because I was obviously a
Coloured girl dating a black male,
who did not look South African,’
says van der Ross.
The Namibian student, a friend
of Van der Ross, was already in
the taxi. She started speaking with
van der Ross in Afrikaans. ‘Now
this struck me as a bit odd,’ says
van der Ross, ‘for even though
I know that she [the Namibian
student] understands the language
staff ‘didn’t really’ make use of
the 24-hour emergency line that
the University made available.
A database of students and staff
who could host other students and
staff in need was established, but,
according to Hall, ‘very few’ people were placed with these hosts.
He said that ‘certainly less than
ten’ displaced people had been
placed in UCT residences.
Hall stated that the University
‘did a check to see if any of
the vendors [on campus] were
affected’. According to him, the
University found out quite early
that one of these vendors had
lost his house through xenophobic
attacks, and ‘found other housing
for him’.
A long-term response…
The First Response report stated
that the University intended to
follow its ‘first response’ with
a focus on ‘helping with understanding causes and pushing for
effective public policy and more
state responses to human rights
issues.’
When asked about the progress the University had made with
its long-term solutions, he said
that it was first trying to document what happened at the time
of the attacks, including UCT’s
response, since much information
had been communicated in temporary formats such as e-mails.
Hall said that the University
was still ‘thinking’ about how to
integrate its long-term response
with its existing Respect cam-

Fitting Sentiment - Protestors
express their anger
and speaks it very well, our language of communication has
always been English.’
The Namibian student and van
der Ross continued talking to each
other in Afrikaans, but after a
few minutes, van der Ross took
notice of the black South African
man sitting next to her Namibian
friend.
Continued on page 11...
paign, as former VC Ndebele last
semester stated it would do. He
said UCT’s new VC, Dr Max
Price, would be ‘very concerned
to lead’ the University’s long-term
response.
What can you do to help?
Asked how he thought UCT students and staff could assist those
adversely affected by xenophobic
violence, Hall said that they should
‘first of all approach SHAWCO,’
adding that he ‘would always
direct anybody there, otherwise
you get too many uncoordinated
initiatives’.
He said that ‘one of the crucial things that students could do
is to open up debate around these
issues of respecting difference and
how people make contributions
coming from different countries’
and also focus on understanding ‘the underlying causes that
cause people to be refugees or
displaced’.
Xenophobia at UCT?
Hall noted that UCT has ‘students
from over a hundred countries’ and
‘from every country in Africa’.
He said that part of UCT’s mission is ‘to be a place where people
can work and study from all over
Africa and we would hold onto that
[mission] very strongly’. ‘I think
that an atmosphere of respect for
difference and for foreign nationals would be important,’ said Hall,
adding that his sense ‘is that that
atmosphere of respect tends to be
quite strong at UCT.’

Varsity

Student challenges prejudice
... from page 10
‘He kept talking to her [the
Namibian student], although I
didn’t make out at first what he
was trying to say to her. She
looked a bit scared but I couldn’t
understand why,’ said van der
Ross.
According to Chambati, the
South African man and another
black South African man sitting
next to van Der Ross, tried to
engage the passengers in the taxi,
including the Namibian student in
a vernacular of Xhosa, Zulu and
Sotho. As the student could not
understand them, says Chambati,
she resorted to speaking Afrikaans.
Van der Ross said that ‘these men
were trying to harass anyone who
got in the taxi and could not speak
to them in Afrikaans or Xhosa.’
According to van der Ross,
when the taxi left Mowbray, the
South African man sitting next to
the Namibian student told her that
he did not have enough money to
pay for his fare to Wynberg and
insisted that the student give him
the R5 he needed.
‘[The student] seemed to just
want to get rid of him and then
paid his fair’, said van der Ross.
‘I thought he was being extremely
rude and wanted to comment, but
we had reached Baxter [Theatre]
and [the Namibian student] got out
of the taxi.’ Van der Ross said that
the taxi driver did not intervene
during this incident.
The South African man sitting
next to van der Ross’ Namibian
friend, began speaking in Xhosa

to another black South African
male. Van der Ross heard him say,
‘They will all see! They must go
back to their countries! They will
see, otherwise they will all die!’
According to van der Ross, the
man sitting next to her replied in
agreement.
Van der Ross said that she then
‘started to fume’ and asked the
man sitting next to her, ‘Who is
this ‘they’ that you are referring
to? Who must leave the country?’
According to her, the man
‘didn’t seem to have an answer
for [her]’. ‘I think he thought
I was a foreigner too, because
I do not have a [stereotypical]
Capetownian accent at all,’ she
said.
According to van der Ross,
the man who had sat next to her
Namibian friend ‘then started
shouting at me saying, ‘All the
foreigners must die! They do not
belong in our country! They are
stealing our wives and our jobs!’
Van der Ross said she was
‘shocked’ by ‘this kind of aggression’, adding that the man sitting
next to her ‘also jumped in on the
screaming match.’
She said that the two men then
asked her who she was and she
replied in Afrikaans. According
to van der Ross, the translated
version of what she said was ‘I
am a Cape Townian just like you,
but right now I am disgusted to
be associated with the likes of
people like you! The jobs in our
country are not being stolen from
you! And neither are your wives!
It is a free country and

you seem to have forgotten
that it was foreigners who helped
us during the struggle! That you
can sit there and say such ignorant
things, comes to show that you are
the ones who need to f*ck out of
the country!’
By the end of this response
van der Ross and Chambati had
reached their destination and disembarked the taxi. According
to her, one South African man
continued to shout at her. ‘I was
shaking as I was walking home,’
said van der Ross, adding that, ‘I
was not afraid of these men, I was
only angry and frustrated.’
Van der Ross blamed ignorance for the two men’s attitudes,
adding that they don’t ‘have a real
reason for their arguments’. The
best they could come up with was
‘they are stealing our wives’,’ she
said.
She added that she was disturbed by how the other passengers in the taxi and its driver did
not intervene. ‘I feel that it was
not the incident itself that shocked
me, but the lack of sensitivity from
everyone else that shocked me
even more. It just showed me that
there is a lack of ubuntu amongst
our people.’
VARSITY does not encourage
readers to challenge xenophobic
attitudes or behaviour if doing
this would pose a threat to your
safety.

opinion

Focus

Closer to home

WE SAW it in the papers, watched
the scenes on the news and heard
about some of the incidents on the
radio. However, for many UCT
students and others not directly
affected, the reality of the wave
of xenophobic-fuelled violence
swept through South Africa, as we
were worrying about our exams.
To be fair why should it have?
For those of us who were not the
targets of the hatred, it was just
another gory story fed to us by
the media. Some people took the
time to give the matter consideration, others tried to contribute
by donating clothes and food or
even going to Ground Zero to see
what they could do. On this count,
organisations such as SHAWCO
and others who have offered their
assistance, should be commended
for their efforts.
However, the truth of the matter is that many chose to ‘do their
part’ merely so that they could
ease their own moral conscience.
After having dropped off the food
and blankets and feeling secure
that they had made their contribution, the middle and upper class
saviours returned to their suburban
dwellings, called their friends to
tell them about their amazing day
saving the foreigners and had a
good night’s sleep.
Should we do more? What
more is there that we can do?
Surely we cannot be expected to
give up our own lives to help
others for a prolonged period of
time? That won’t solve the problems. At the end of the day, the
survivors had a warm meal and
perhaps a semi-comfortable sleep

11

in a jam-packed hall and at least
for a few moments they may have
felt wanted or even respected by
South Africans. Nevertheless, the
real problem is narrow-minded
and hatred-driven violence against
people different to ourselvesremains.
For those students who
believe themselves to be innocent of wrongdoing, think again.
Countless times you will hear a
student complaining about ‘that
Nigerian/ Ghanaian/ Namibian/
Zimbabwean lecturer’ and how
they refuse to attend lectures
because they cannot speak English.
You’ll also hear some reference
to a person’s nationality that is
loosely linked to their perceived
inability to do something.
The point is not that they
are foreign, the point is that far
too often we choose a person’s
most obvious characteristic (their
nationality) to blame them for our
own problems. When these feelings were magnified and injected
with a particular dosage of passion
and anger, the result was the murder, assault, eviction and terrorising of foreign nationals.
So, if those of us who are
educated and privileged enough to
be able to make a difference want
to help, we should not stop short
at delivering food and blankets.
If we really want to make a difference that extends beyond our
moral guilt and tackle xenophobia head on, we should start by
accepting responsibility for our
own actions and shortcomings
rather than shifting the blame to
the easiest target.

@ Evolution
Catch some of the hottest local djs
in action
31 July: Inge Beckmann & Band
@ Klein Libertas
The songstress of the former
band Lark will be performing with
her new band.
31 July: DJ Kent CD Launch @
Bang Bang
One third of Kentphonic in
action.
31 July: The Beams @ Mystic
Boer
Cape Town indie/rock/electronica band is still alive and kicking.
31 July: It came from the Jungle
presents Niskerone @ Fiction
Rooooaaaaar! It came from the
Jungle!
1 Aug: Kidofdoom, Magnum
HI-FI & Unit.r @ Mercury
Do you wanna see the cutest
Photo courtesy of sandtoncental.co.za

Doing it for
daddy
David Brits gets to grips with being a ‘friendly
subversive’
IT WAS one of those nondescript
autumnal months. The day was
still and the sky a yellow grey. It
felt as though something bad was
going to happen. The atmosphere
was a bit too tranquil for my liking – perhaps this was the calm
before the onslaught of another
moody cold front. Russet leaves
floated down from the trees as the
cold air bit at the nape of my neck.
It seemed the earth, like some
deciduous organ, was slowly shutting down.
I was in a bit of a spin. It was
one of those days where there was
much to do and I found myself
neither here, nor there. Our meeting for coffee was very last minute, so there’d be no time for a
milky Nescafé. I walked across
the lawn and there she was, sitting
outside the art shop, scratching
in the cavity of her handbag for
a lighter.
The flint cracked, sparks burst
and the lighter erupted in flame.
The cherry of her cigarette glowed
in nicotine ecstasy. As I trudged,
flustered, towards the table, she
shot me a smile, a snake of burning tobacco coiling through the
air. Her name was Linda, Linda
Stupart, of the all-girl art collective Doing It For Daddy. We
hadn’t much time, so as the smoke
dangled above our heads, we
slipped quickly into the interview.
But first I have to get something out of the way. Art, as with
any good culturally-highfalutin phenomenon, is packed with
many fancy terms. Doing It For
Daddy just happens to fall under
one such bit of jargon: something
known as a collective. Simply put,
an artist collective is a group of
artists working together towards
shared aims. These days, most art
collectives come flying a fuckthe-art-system Jolly Roger, sporting some slick fuck-the-art-system
name. Although not quite as cool
as something like the Vodacom
Cheetahs, names like Guerrilla
Girls and AvantCarGuard stand
out as some of the most smooth
and dissident.
A few minutes into the conversation and Linda was at full tilt.
It turns out we were sitting at the
very spot at which the subversive

collective was born.
Smoking single cigarettes and
drinking cheap coffee outside
Michaelis Art and Hardware, a
group of three young curators,
theorists and art practitioners
sit in disgust. They are Linda,
Renee Hollerman, and Bettina
Malcomness. All have just read
the latest issue of Art South
Africa, featuring Sharlene Kahn’s
diatribe against white women in
the artworld. Accused of apparently perpetuating the very same
hegemony that oppressed them,
this trio of fairer-sexed caucasians
is ready to take up arty arms.
After contemplating angry combative responses, the three decide
it might be better to produce work
that questioned the very kinds of
framings and assumptions the article perpetuated.
So with their brand new fuckthe-art-system modus operandi
and a spiffy name snatched from
the title of Ms Khan’s article, off
went the collective set, garnering
a good deal of acclaim, criticism
and prize money as they went
about their merry arty way.
In a recent wave of success,
the trio won an award for their
Wrong Side of the River Tour at
the Spier Contemporary 2007
– South Africa’s new premiere,
biennial, contemporary exhibition
and competition.
For those of you who missed
out, Doing It For Daddy’s winning work took the exhibition outside of the gallery space on an
historical tour of the Spier Estate.
Somewhere between performance
and installation, their rather bizarre
walkabout was complete with faux
tour guide, maps and beacons that
invoked the real and fictional histories of the wine estate and its
characters.
But enough with boring
descriptions. Hell-bent on challenging existing perceptions and
attitudes in the visual arts, this collective of partisan art practitioners
is certainly going places. Whether
doing it for daddy, for money,
or to impress their art collective
competition, it shouldn’t be long
before they’ll have the title of a
cellular network before their slick
fuck-the-art-system name.

WALKING into The Dark Knight,
I felt skeptical as to whether the
movie would live up to the hype.
Talk of a posthumous Oscar for
Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker
had been escalating for weeks. I
remember thinking callously; is
it because his performance really
was excellent, or is it because
he died before the film could be
unveiled? Yet as the movie unraveled, I realised that all the pre-publicity for the film was accurate.
Ledger’s performance is chillingly rendered. The Joker is a
maniacal, anarchic and sociopathic villain. His rein of tyranny is
unleashed when the mobsters of
Gotham hire him to kill Batman
(Christian Bale). Batman’s vigilantism has all but eliminated
organised crime. Fighting the
good fight along with Batman
is Gotham’s District Attorney,
Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart).
Dent is ensconced firmly within
the constraints of the law, while
Batman uses questionable methods to pursue the criminals of
Gotham City.
When the mob resorts to hiring the Joker to get rid of Batman,
things rapidly spiral out of control.
Unlike the mob, the Joker’s actions
are not motivated by greed, but by
an overwhelming desire to cause
destruction. His aim is to reduce
Gotham to the state of nature,
where life is nasty, brutish and
short. This is perfectly illustrated
by the final showdown, where the
Joker rigs two boats with explosives and gives the detonators of
the respective boats to the occupants of the other boat. He gives
them until midnight to blow each
other up, and if one of the boats
doesn’t blow the other up, he will
blow both of them up. I leave it

Photo courtesy of upload.wikimedia.org

Nabeelah Martin

Joker v Batman - An unstoppable force meets an immovable
object
to you to see whether the citizens
of Gotham live up to the Joker’s
dystopian vision.
The Joker’s efforts to ensnare
Batman involve killing people
until Batman reveals his true
identity. It is here that we get
to see Bruce Wayne agonising
over whether to reveal himself.
Christian Bale does a credible job
of portraying Wayne’s inner angst.
Wayne’s hesitance to reveal himself lends itself to cowardice. Yet
his turn at playing the billionaire
playboy is fraught with awkward
self-consciousness. Bale is at his
best when he is wrapped up in
his suit.
In terms of romantic entangle-

Wed 6th Aug. (1-2pm)
Leslie Social Science 2B

ments, Wayne is still hankering
after Rachel, his childhood love
played by Maggie Gyllenhall.
Rachel has moved on though, to
Harvey Dent. Gyllenhall’s performance is sound, and Rachel is
brought to life as strong, intelligent, and femininely fierce.
The movie also sees the emergence of another famous villain,
Twoface. Harvey Dent is the character who falls from grace. Dent’s
transition into Twoface is superficial. His 180 degree turnaround
from Gotham’s white knight, to a
murderer who flippantly tosses a
coin in order to determine the fates
of his victims, is not sufficiently
dealt with. Granted, his psychosis is triggered by a tragic event;
but the transition remains slightly
implausible.
The film is bolstered by questions of morality. We ask ourselves whether the ends justify the
means, and we question the morality of the protagonists. This is
one of the film’s strengths, in that
there is no clear line between right
and wrong. The heroes (Batman
and the Gotham police force) are
flawed and easily identifiable as
human. They don’t preach from
the high ground, and they are
aware of their own shortcomings.
Where the film falls is the convoluted storyline. Scenarios flit
rapidly from one to the next, leaving viewers with a nagging doubt
that they have missed something.
Yet, the scenes in themselves
are magnificently wrought, with
immaculate attention to detail. The
performances vary in strength, but
they are all sound. Ledger’s performance trumps them all though,
and if it does earn a posthumous
Oscar, it will be thoroughly
deserving. It drives home the talented actor’s ignominious demise
as a pitiful waste.

Lara Potgieter, a self-proclaimed groupie, laments
the monotony of the indie-rock scene

Photo courtesy of photobucket.inc

Varsity

Pretty Blue Guns - ‘Casanova sucking on Juliette’s neck’
PERHAPS you have grown tired
of the current Cape Town indie
rock scene, and all the articles I
publish about it. Don’t worry, I
have too. In fact, the local music
scene has begun to dissolve into
a single blur of cacophonic sound
and over-processed ideas. And the
fact that these sentiments are being
expressed by a devout groupie
should cause any self-respecting
live music fan to shudder.
Fear not, however, my foot-tapping friends. There lies amongst
this sad heap of monotony and
conformity, a little jewel of hope.
Hope that the legacy of the Stones
and Tom Waits can live on in
this hyperactive, synthesised era.
Hope that Cape Town might just
produce the next Kings of Leon.
Hope made easy by the revival of
the power of classic rock ‘n roll
mixed with the irresistibly lovely
dirtiness of the blues.

The revivalists are pretty. They
wail a blues that would make
Sonny Boy shake in his grave.
They recreate the romanticism of
a cowboy, a gun and a one horse
town. They are the Pretty Blue
Guns.
The rough sexiness of frontman Andre Leo as he brawls about
‘Casanova sucking on Juliette’s
neck’ makes my insides melt, and
all I want to be is his ‘Mary living with flowers in her hair...who
never grows up cos this world’s not
good enough for [her]’. Doesn’t
that image just ooze the simple
romanticism of an era passed and
so dearly missed by those of us
who dream of the musician who
will save the world whilst sweeping us into the sexy world of rock
‘n roll love and lust?
But, of course, it’s not my
job to share my groupie fantasies
with you. I’m here to educate
you punks about good music. So,
away with the starry-eyed ambitions of the band-aids and in with
the Lester Bangs critique. These
boys know how to make music.
Their recently released EP has
found a much sought-after home
between my CCR and Johnny Cash
albums, and it is the only music I
can really count on when I begin
to despair about the dwindling
prospects of the local music scene.
And when I feel like putting on
them blue jeans, closing my eyes
and pretending I don’t live in this
godforsaken era, of course.
What makes these boys even
more remarkable is that they are
fresh out of high school. Yep,
forget the mournful grawl of the
bearded has-been, and say hello
to some energetic and fresh-faced,
yet surprisingly mature talent.
Don’t worry, it’s impossible to
imagine that they rose out of a
high school battle of the bands a
mere two years ago. These boys,
with a confidence and understanding of rock ‘n roll far beyond their
years, have come to own the Cape
Town/Somerset West alt rock
scene. They have cracked performances with established bands
such as Howard Roark (R.I.P) and
the Vontaines and have conquered
the long and winding road to
Splashy Fen and back. If I could
take one local band back in time
with me to the seductive chaos of
the original Woodstock, and watch
them with a sense of great pride in
my patriotic little groupie heart, it
would be these guys. Look out for
them, kiddos.

13868_Varsity"Tie"_390X260.indd 1

6/13/08 2:01:57 PM

16

Features

WE arrive in Istanbul, Turkey on
a warm evening in July. Daylight
veils the ivory skyline until after
9 pm, illuminating the mosques’
domes in a soft golden glow. An
arresting incantation, delivered
in the name of holy reverence,
hangs in the summer air, while
taxis and cars race to the beats
of the latest Turkish chart-toppers and American hip-hop songs:
‘Apple-bottom jeans, boots with
the fur…’ Women in gold and
diamante-studded burkhas lower
their made-up eyes as we pass, as
others flaunt their tans and vivacious dark hair, dressed in the
newest European trends.
Istanbul
was
formerly
Constantinople, the capital of the
Byzantine Empire (330-1453AD)
and was renamed when the
Ottomans captured it in 1453. They
would refer to it later as Istambol,
a Turkish word roughly translated
as ‘The City of Islam’ – striking
and unmistakably unique; stirring
harmoniously within the tumult
of the 21st century, amidst three
thousand years of history. A paradox, caught somewhere between
the ancient and the modern, the
religious and the secular.
‘One of the greatest things you
can do as a Muslim is to visit
Mecca at least once before you
die,’ says Ahmet, our Contiki tour
guide who has lived in Turkey for
the duration of his life. ‘Personally,
I would rather go to Las Vegas.’
Turkey became a constitutionally secular country in 1923 when
it was established as a republic
under President Atatürk (meaning father of the Turks), a name
bestowed upon him for his role in
the country’s emancipation during
the Turkish War of Independence.
The founding of the Republic of
Turkey saw the end of 600 years
of Ottoman rule and subsequently,
the termination of Islam as the
state religion.
In addition to the secularisation of the country, Atatürk introduced reforms that prompted the
modernisation and Westernisation
of Turkey. Today, the country has
the 15th largest economy in the
world and is currently engaged
in full membership negotiations
with the European Union (EU).

between modernity and antiquity - Hawkers sell their wares in Istanbul, the city of paradox
In an attempt to secure its acceptance, the country is increasingly
becoming even more secular. In
2005, the same year that the negotiations with the EU began, it
became illegal to wear religious
head cover in government buildings and schools.
Despite such reforms, the
Turkish population is 99%
Muslim. The ruling political party,
the AKP, although elected through
a popular vote, has received criticism for being anti-secular and
having an Islamist agenda. This
is a belief held particularly by the
Turkish military, discovered to be
plotting a coup to oust the AKP
from power just one week prior to
our arrival in Istanbul.
Religion is not the only conspicuous contradiction along Turkey’s
socio-political landscape. While
embracing modernity, the country
lies at the heart of the ancient
world: The remains of the cities
of Troy, Ephesus, Pergamum and
Hierapolis, all constructed before
the Common Era, lie in the Asian

part of Turkey, which formed part
of Ancient Anatolia. In the city of
Istanbul, suburbs such as Karaköy
and Üsküdar were inhabited as
early as 7th century BCE.
The streets of the old city are
laden with smooth cobblestones.
Merchants in pressed suits chat
leisurely with each other, sipping
Elma cayi (apple tea) from goldpainted glasses. They linger in
the doorways of their shops, filled
with pashminas made of cashmere
and silk and Turkish carpets that
change colour when they move.
We amble along, enticed by
chocolate-covered chestnuts, simit
(freshly-baked round breads with
sesame seeds), apricots and figs,
baklava drizzled with honey and
pistachio nuts, and Rahat lokum
(Turkish delight), an Ottoman delicacy flavoured with rose water
and coated with icing sugar created by the confectioner to the
imperial court.
The road curves and we pass
the Sirkeci train station – the destination of the Orient Express,

Have car, will travel

RoRy Holmes

THERE is nothing more profoundly student-like than overloading a car and then driving it
half way across Africa. And after
this holiday, I can tell you from
personal experience that, so long
as you have a stomach for copious amounts of baked beans when
cash gets low, you should look
into the idea.
In the spirit of digs bonding,
six of us set out from Cape Town,
piled into an old ’94 model Toyota
Land Cruiser, to see Africa. Our
goal was simply to make it to Lake
Malawi and back. The route that
we took through Mozambique is
one favoured by foreign students
who make the trip using public
transport and was thus quite festive. You often meet up with people from all over the world in the
most random of places with crazy
backgrounds. A word of warning
however: If you do not like to
drink, I would eschew the backpackers idea; when you’re camped
in close proximity to the bar, there
is no chance of you getting to bed
before the last people leave the
bar, so you may as well join in.
We spent the majority of our

days wandering perfect beaches,
which we had largely to ourselves
as it was not yet school holidays
and JHB had yet to migrate up
the coast. From climbing coconut
trees to fishing off the shore, there
is always something to do. One
of the highlights was found in
Vilanculous, in the far north of the
country. There, we managed to get
a Dhow to take us island-hopping
and fishing. Dhows are small sailing boats of Arabic origin which
were used for trading when much
of the coast of Africa was used
to support the slave trade. The
design, however, has not been lost;
the locals use them for fishing and
then sell their catch at exorbitant
prices to tourists who don’t know
better and can afford it.
We got to the lake in three weeks
after driving through Maputo, Tofo,
Pomene, Vilanculous, Chicamba
Dam, Lilongwe and finally into
Senga Bay on the lake. One of the
best things about driving through
Mozambique is the vast amount
of seafood at hand. In Maputo you
eat Frango’s (chicken) at sidewalk
café’s but further north is where
you get the best fish. Tofo is
the prawn and crayfish place, we
sampled estuary crab in Pomene

and Kingfish in Vilanculous.
Lake Malawi is a vast expanse
of water, incomprehensible unless
you have actually seen it. It covers one fifth of the entire country
and it is impossible to see shore
to shore. The locals use hollowedout logs as canoes with which they
fish for Butterfish on the lake and
then sell it at market. Malawi still
retains some very distinct colonial
ideals; the locals who work for
you in any capacity always call
you Bwana and the housekeeping
is almost always done by men, as
it was in the days when the British
controlled the country.
All in all, this trip is definitely
worth doing if you have the time
and inclination. Generally accommodation is very affordable, as
is food, so long as you have the
patience to haggle for a while
until they realise that, no, you’re
not American and do not get paid
in dollars. In fact, our greatest
worry was the petrol price, which
reached the equivalent of R16.50
a litre (which was when having
six people in the car paid off!).
Bringing a lot of spares is a good
idea too; we spent six hours sitting
on the side of the road, broken
down with a fairly integral part of

opened in the late 19th century.
The sun begins to set. We make
our way, together with as many as
one million young people (65% of
the population of Turkey is under
the age of 30), to Taksim Square,
the hub of modern Istanbul in
the area of Beyoğlu, to smoke a
hookah on plush colourful cushions, enjoy a raki (clear aniseedflavoured spirit), parade down
Istiklal Caddesi (street), and sip
chocolate martinis at cosmopolitan lounges and bars.
Later, we hop into a taxi enroute to Ortaköy, which bustles
with restaurants and nightclubs
underneath the Bosphorus Bridge.
This structure, now ordained with
twinkling neon lights, historically linked European and Asian
Turkey. Istanbul is the only city in
the world that straddles two continents. One can visit the other side
by taking a vapur (ferry) across
the Bosphorus River, which glitters in the moonlight.
The taxi driver speaks very
little English, but he is surpris-

ingly able to string together a few
words, directed specifically at the
guys in the car with us. ‘Hashish,
lady, cocaine, hotel room…no
problem…200 lyre.’ We laugh. He
thinks we are interested. ‘Lady,
cocaine… no lady, hashish…no
problem.’
We arrive at Club Reina,
the most beautiful and pretentious nightclub we had ever seen.
A Turkish celebrity couple was
being interviewed outside as we
joined the queue of emaciated,
bleached-blonde Turkish girls
in tiny black dresses. ‘It’s Tiger
Tiger’ I thought, only this was the
real thing.
Heading back to the hotel
around 4 am, I have already fallen
in love with the place. To an
extent, Istanbul’s identity appears
confused, in-flux and mismatched,
but it is its eclecticism that makes
it so beautiful. This city is a postmodernist text – a reappropriation
of history – embracing the future
in the company of a proud and
intricate past.

Photo courtesy of Rory Holmes

Philippa Levenberg

Photo courtesy of Zack Bernbaum

Istanbul – a relic reborn

Volume 67
Number 8

Lake malawi - Dhows float in the middle distance
the engine in pieces. It was only
with some fairly clever super-gluing that we managed to get under
way, as the concept of keeping
spares seems to have not yet made
it to Mozambique. There is simply
not enough space here to really
do this trip justice. A couple of
tips for the next intrepid explorers though: Make sure that you

only travel with people with large
bladders; remember that the price
you’re quoted is always more than
they expect to get; and the police
are to be feared – nothing kills the
mood like having to pay a bribe
when you haven’t done anything
wrong!

Varsity

business

A storm is coming...

Buy an Xbox360 now
Alisa Davidson preaches to the unwashed
masses.

Image courtesy of : www.blizzard.com

Ben Steenhuisen discusses the announcement that turned the geek
world onto its head.
THE internet is buzzing with
magic, following recent rumours
regarding Blizzard spread all over
the internet. Most of our readers
out there are probably wondering
what a ‘Blizzard’ is. They would
be amongst the people that have
never heard of a ‘Zerg rush’, never
been called ‘Fresh meat’ by a
bloodied cleaver-bearing-overlord,
nor ever ‘spelar lite DotA’ (excuse
the Swedish). They would also
be amongst those deserving to be
shot, since although Blizzard may
be one of the cornerstones of modern geek culture, I’d have to say
any childhood without Starcraft,
Diablo or Warcraft would be a
troubled one indeed.
And now, with the affirmation
that Diablo 3 is destined to come,
there is still light at the end of the
gaming tunnel.
Blizzard has been rather active
in the news recently with the
gameplay and theatrical trailers
of Starcraft 2, and has received a
huge amount of publicity for the
new expansion pack for World of
Warcraft (Wrath of the Lich King)
coming out, all to the delight of
fans. Although no date for Starcraft
2 has been released, I’d like to
guess somewhere around mid-tolate 2009. Historical data would
indicate that Diablo 3 would come
out around mid-to-end 2011 (for
example, World of Warcraft was
announced on 2 September, 2001
and released on 23 November
2004). Diablo 3’s plot will follow on 20 years after the events
that unfolded in Diablo 2, with
(excuse the spoiler but you scriptkiddies are about eight years late)
Diablo, Mephisto and Baal being
defeated.
Diablo 3 will include part of
the Havok physics engine, used in
such games as The Elder Scrolls
IV: Oblivion and BioShock, as
well as part of Blizzard’s custom
graphics engine. As a result of
such a hybrid, tables, bookshelves
and even walls will be destructible, allowing a player to collapse

ceilings and traps onto enemy
units. What could also be interesting is the portability of the Havok
engine onto consoles, opening the
door for Diablo 3 becoming a
console game (although the first
release will be for Mac and PC at
the same time, with no mention of
consoles).
At the moment, Blizzard dominates 3 of the top 20 most-played
games on Xfire (a PC gamers’
chatting and gaming-statistics
programme), a feat which only
two other developers are achieving at the moment, namely the
‘Call of Duty’ series by ‘Infinity
Ward’ and the ‘Counter Strike’
combo of Source and 1.6 together
with ‘Team Fortress 2’ game by
‘Valve’. In fact, the most played
game, World of Warcraft, is beating (in raw total time played per
month) the sum of #2 and #3 on
the list, Call of Duty 4 and 2.
What I find the most interesting is how Blizzard market their
products. They don’t go around
rallying people to come look at
their latest offering. They don’t
offer huge money to popular websites. They don’t even try an Apple
stunt and keep a project undercover and then all of a sudden
go ‘The newest Apple product
(insert i-Something) – Available:
NOW!’ on every billboard in the
USA (since the rest of the world

clearly doesn’t count to Apple).
No, Blizzard plays a much slower
game. They use a combination of
suspense and word of mouth to
create such a hype around anything Blizzard-like, that no matter
what they announce, it will be
greeted by millions of users.
For Diablo 3, they put a single,
ambiguous picture on the front
page of their main website. Fans
argued over which game it was
from or could be from. Topics on
forums grew in length to thousands of replies in a few hours.
The next day, the picture changed
slightly, showing a bit more of the
underlying image. By the time
the second-to-last picture was
released, there was such a furor
about which game it was, that 3
of Digg.com’s front page articles
were about Diablo 3. With the
verification that it was Diablo 3 at
the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment
Worldwide Invitational in Paris,
millions around the world rejoiced
(a lot of ‘I told you so’s’).
I think that truly one member
of a Diablo 3 forum captured the
heart and soul of what the release
will mean to the gaming world:
‘Now we need to figure out a way
to extend the hours in a day, so
that we can still get some time in
for WoW.’

One browser to rule them all
OVER the odd 17 years that web
browsers have been around, things
have come a long way in many
respects. I doubt that Tim BernersLee, upon creating the world’s first
browser ‘WorldWideWeb’ would
ever think that within his lifetime,
the internet would grow to encompass over a billion people, one in
every six men, women and children, moving more information
than a city of libraries.
Now with online banking, social networking, pictures,
streaming videos and music, the
internet assists us not only with
our academic pursuits, but also
with our social, financial and
entertainment needs. The most
common program one would associate with the internet is known
as the ‘browser’. It uses a common set of rules to communicate
with other machines all around the
world. Now, because there is this
common standard protocol, one
can choose what ‘browser’ to use
with the internet, depending on
their needs and technical limitations. This is great as it allows us
the freedom of what browser to
use and on what platform, but at
the same time it has an interesting
history associated with it.
At the beginning of the ‘dotcom bubble’ (around 1995), there

Image courtesy of : pliniotorres.files.wordpress.com

BEN STEENHUISEN

AWESOMENESS - Taking the
Browser wars one PC at a time.
was an assortment of browsers available such as Mosiac,
MacWeb, IBrowse, Web Explorer
and the only one most of us
know today: Netscape Navigator.
Following this, the Internet
Explorer 1 and then a few months
later, 2, were released, bringing
with it the first ‘browser war’
with the ever popular Netscape
Navigator. When Microsoft
released Internet Explorer 4 in
late 1997, they thought they had
begun to catch up in browser race
and placed a huge ‘e’ logo outside Netscape offices. Netscape
rather smugly replied with a large
dinosaur outside their own offices
with a sign saying ‘Netscape 72,
Microsoft 18’, representing their
market shares. Microsoft then

17

&technology

continued to use some of their
Dick-Dastardly tactics, such as the
release of Internet Explorer with
all Windows products, coupled
with the targeting of Netscape’s
poor financial condition to edge
them out of the market, something
they achieved by 2000.
The second browser war began
in 2004, when Mozilla Firefox 1
was released into an incredibly
tight market. The ‘Opera’ browser
was sitting pretty at half a percent, Internet Explorer at 95%,
and Apple had released ‘Safari’ at
pretty much the same time. Firefox
was open source, and with its fast
development times and rapid fixes
(something not generally associated with Internet Explorer), it
began its climb in the market
share wars. By the mid 2006, it
had reached 10% market share –
something extraordinary. Firefox
lost no momentum and continued
to grow, reaching just over 16%
[to IE’s 78%] as of July this year.
Its Firefox 3 release, on July 17th
caused international news as it
attempted to set a new record of
‘Most Software Downloads in a
day’. It achieved 8,249,092 downloads, a truly amazing feat by any
standards.
My opinion: Firefox, because
a picture of a fox on fire ripping a
chunk out of a floating ‘E’ sign is
the coolest thing ever.

I HAVE never been a console-orientated gamer, but upon acquisition of the Xbox 360 (for free,
might I add), I was converted.
Some may say that the 360 is
merely a computer trapped in the
body of a console, but it still had
better graphics and audio than any
other competing products at the
time – and a sexier case too. To
maximise the potential of the console, hooking it up to a HD screen
is a definite must, or else you are
just missing out on mind-blowing
Master Chief action.
The Xbox Live service was
upgraded for the release of the
360, making it easier to download
game demos, talk to friends and
brag about your various gaming
achievements (insert one of my
non-existent achievements here).
It does have an annoying pricetag attached to it if you want to
play games online, but from what
I have been told it is worth every
cent.
The Xbox dashboard is easy to
navigate, even for the technologically illiterate (like Ben’s mom),
and the interface is aesthetically
pleasing. You don’t even need to
move off the couch to switch on
the console! Do it all using your
comfy plug-and-play controller
(available in white, blue, black
and fabulous pink).
A Microsoft representative has
promised that there will be over
1,000 games available for 360
before 2009. We can only hope
that all the titles will match previous titles such as: Mass Effect¸
Gears of War and Halo 3, but
realistically, for every good game,
there is one Looney Tunes: Acme
Arsenal. However, despite the
crap polluting our gaming environment, Xbox owners have been
holding their heads up high from
all the ex-Playstation 3 developers creating games for the Xbox
360 – Grand Theft Auto 4 being
the best and most money-making

example.
Unfortunately, for some, the
Xbox 360 comes equipped with
a standard DVD drive (unlike the
Blu-ray format of the PlayStation
3). While this is a backwards
step technologically, it has kept
the cost of manufacture down by
using it. The PlayStation 3 is one
and a half times the prices of an
Xbox360 by using ‘new’ technology. The console also has a noisy
exhaust drive, but that is easily combated by turning up your
favourite Village People CD, or
by being deaf.
‘Red Ring of Death’. A phrase
potent enough to reduce all console gamers to buying N-Gages.
Three flashing red quadrants
around the power button and you
are out. Luckily, Microsoft finally realised their mistake; after a
couple of million complaints, and
covered this ‘General Hardware
Failure’ in their three-year warranty.
The Xbox is easy to use, relatively cheap, more manly than
a Wii and ultimately, just plain
awesome. Any product endorsed
by Frodo on MTV automatically
gets my vote. Let the PS3 die
from being unloved and let the
children play on the Wii, buy an
Xbox and give Bill Gates more of
your money.

The column in the corner
Karl
‘The
Thomson

Bachelor’

WELCOME back to UCT and,
more specifically, to the first edition of VARSITY for the semester.
While most of you valued readers don’t think the first edition is
of any importance in any given
timeframe, it should be important
to you and consideration should
be given.
Why, I hear you ask over the
sound of Chinese food being
chewed. Simply, while you were
laying on the beach, hoping the
sun would come out to unbleach
your body for just a moment, we
(most of the Collective) were busting our asses trying to produce
something readable and useful. I
assume this has been achieved. If
it hasn’t, please send us an email
detailing your complaint, and we
will refund you for the full purchase price and offer you a a discount on our next edition. We are
kind and understanding people.
Anyway, onto business,
eagled-eyed readers will notice
a heavy gaming presence on this
page. The reason for this occuring
is next week is the UCT Gaming
Tournament held at Kopano. For
those who have forgotten from
drinking all those trendy drinks,
there will be Counter-Strike
1.6, DotA, FIFA 08 and Quake

3. Prizes will be given out to
the top teams and there will be
refreshments on sale for nominal
fees. For any info, email bensteenhuisen@gmail.com. If you have
no interest in gaming whatsoever,
email him anyway.
Other news from the frontlines
is that we will be looking for
replacements soon. And by ‘looking for’ I mean ‘we have no choice
and must’ and by ‘replacements’
I mean ‘inferior clones’. There
will probably be an advertisement
somewhere in this edition detailing who to contact etc etc. If you
get confused in a prepubescent
rage, just email bensteenhuisen@
gmail.com. I’m certain he won’t
mind.
As a brief aside, am I the only
person to express so much displeasure towards a computer that
I threatened to kill it and it’s family? Please email us and tell us if
you have done something similar.
Until that glorious day in
September when a new Business
and Technology Editor is elected,
you will deal with the crap that I
write here. If you do like it, thats
excellent. If you don’t, go read
page 18. I’m certain that will be
more up your alley.
Until next time, adieu.

18

humour

Anton Taylor

DURING the annual mid-year
break there are always numerous
aspects of university life that I find
myself beginning to miss.
There is the pleasure of seeing
your friends and peers regularly,
while simultaneously forming
new relationships with interesting
and exciting people. There are
the magnificent settings we find
ourselves surrounded by: sandwiched between a mountain so
lush and verdant that it seems
from an age before man, and a
picturesque view of our gorgeous
city, progressing towards winelands and golden hills which seem
to reach up and kiss gentle white
clouds, peacefully decorating the
light blue sky. And, of course,
there is the sweet, fragrant scent
of ripe first-year flange wafting
down Jammie steps on a balmy
afternoon.
However, there is one thing
above all others; above Tiger Tiger,
above partially-retarded blondes,
and above the shitty dance-offs we
have most Thursdays, which I find
myself craving.
That thing is Rugby.
There is nothing more pure,
chaste and heavenly as this glorious game (if you can even call
it a game, for in all honesty it is
closer to a religion). Few things
will nourish and warm a person’s
soul more than a visit to our very
own UCT rugby fields on a Rugby
Afternoon, where sitting along-

side Cecil John you will watch,
but more importantly listen to,
the rapturous sound of mankind
in all its majesty. The dull thuds
of manmeat colliding, the pleasurable snapping and severing of
tendons and bones, the piercing
calls ordering a solid rush defense,
the jubilant screams of enthralled
bystanders, the exultant shouts
of triumphant winners and the
sobs of distraught fucking losers;
a magical mélange of ‘boets’ and
‘chanas’ and ‘fucks’ and ‘buggers’
and ‘brus’ and ‘boois’ which all
come together to create a symphony more wondrous and spellbinding than anything ever created by
Mozart, Beethoven and possibly
even Kurt Darren. For it is the
sound of man in positive action. It
is the sound of glory.
As the book of John Smit (2:15)
tells us: ‘And William Webb Ellis
said ‘Let there be Rugby boet’
and, like fuck, there was ruggaz.
And he saw that it was like, lank
good.
To our brutha Billy Webb
(glory be unto his fucking name)
who gave us the immaculate
pick up and drive, we say ‘Shot,
Bugga’.’
Rugby provides spiritual
strength to all who love it: most
men rate putting in a big hit more
joyous than the birth of a child,
whilst others claim to have learned
the meaning of life after having
chowed gap and crossed over for
try time.
Rugby also comes with an

Zuka and the Kingdom of Dibo

Photo by Nicolette Du Plessis

‘Let there be
Rugby’

Volume 66
Number 8

Rugby Players - What your girlfriend was really doing on Saturday night
accompaniment of amazing benefits, including increased strength,
greater social status, richer and
more potent levels of arrogance,
and the augmented growth of
one’s mancock (this last betterment might explain many women’s reluctance to play rugby).
However, there are some who
fight against rugby. Who fight
against the True and the Beautiful.
Epitomising all that is septic and
decaying within our society, we
find in the vile cracks of our
culture wretched children of darkness, who feel it acceptable to
blaspheme against this resplendent religion.
Just as evil, morbidly obese
women, whilst eating deep fried
babies and downing pints of melt-

ed butter (or whatever the fuck it
is evil, morbidly obese women do)
criticise beautiful skinny ladies
for being ‘superficial’ and ‘overly
concerned with appearance’ (like
that’s possible!?) so too do little
soft-cock perversions of society,
devoid of courage, character and
the ability to fend off and step,
insult rugby players, making them
out to be simple cretins, concerned
only with ruggaz, getting wasted,
gym, and chicks.
Now, I’m not yet sure how
this is an insult, but it nevertheless
enrages me that there are those
who dare denigrate a game which
brings so much happiness to so
many and has on numerous occasions united our young country.
However, at the end of the

day, when the full-time whistle
blows, these loathsome cowards
will never say anything to a rugby
player’s face, and are in the vast
minority, not because they are
‘free-thinking non-conformists’
but because they are bitter, insignificunt losers.
So long as good exists, there
will always be Rugby. It will continue bringing together different
races, religions and genders, and
giving joy to millions of people.
And no matter how bleak and
barren times become, through it
all there will always be the light,
illuminating the old Pigskin spiraling towards the Promised Land,
showing us the way.

Thabiso Mhlanga
The VARSITY Humour page
is a vehicle for expression.
The views expressed in the
Humour section are not necessarily those of the advertisers or staff of VARSITY
newspaper, or the University
of Cape Town.
But, if you still choose to
ingnore this comprehensive
DISCLAIMER, as well as the
fact that this is the HUMOUR
section, and would still like to
complain about this page, the
UCT 1st XV will be fielding
any and all complaints at their
Thursday rugby practice.
PS: Ruggaz 4 life.

Varsity

sports

A nation’s hope

Photo courtesy of HARRINGTONggpht_com

Back-to-back success
for Harrington

19

Photo courtesy of 1595_1_1000 Soccer City SA 1worldarchitecturenews

Rory holmes
REFERRED to simply as The
Open Championship, the world’s
biggest golf tournament was won
last Sunday by Ireland’s Padraig
Harrington, who was masterful in
securing victory for his second year
running. Playing one of the finest
rounds of his career, the Irishman
secured a commanding 4-shot lead
over Britain’s Ian Poulter at Royal
Birkdale in Southport, England.
Speculation during the tournament was that veteran Greg
Norman would take the cup, as
he was the overnight leader going
into the final day. Harrington
came into the tournament nursing a minor injury to his right
wrist, and was not expected to
mount a determined defence of
his title. Harrington and Norman
were indeed neck and neck on the
front nine of the final round until
Harrington managed to break free
with two birdies on the 13 and
15 hole over his main contender
and playing partner. Harrington
parred the 18 for a one-under 69
round and a three-over tally of
283 overall for his second major
victory. He is the first European to

win back-to-back Championships
since James Braid in 1906.
Norman will rightfully feel
gutted with his final day’s play.
He went into the day as leader,
but imploded on the back nine to
allow Harrington to blow right
past him. After Harrington pulled
away, there seemed to be nothing
that Norman could do to respond
to the Irishman, as he could not
summon the type of shots that
brought him the lead earlier in
the week. Harrington showed his
calibre on the 17th hole, opting
to strike a lengthy 5-wood green
shot rather than lay-up and allow
Norman back into the reckoning.
‘As soon as I hit it, my caddie said
to me ‘good shot’, and that’s totally out of character for him,’ the
champion said afterwards. ‘I didn’t
want to lay-up and make par when
I knew Greg Norman could make
an eagle there, because a one-shot
lead is nothing.’ Harrington was
proved right in his shot selection
as he survived the hole with his 4shot lead intact to get par on the 18
and take the famous Open trophy,
the Claret Jug.

Dramatic F1 finale imminent
Jonny Wilkinson

NOT since the early 90s has
Formula One been this exciting.
The years that marked the reign
of Michael Schumacher have now
crashed into something joyfully
unpredictable and dramatic since
his departure in 2006. Gone are
the days where one driver dominates and championships become
boring and predictable. There are
now four incredibly talented drivers with the likes of Nick Heidfeld
and Nico Rosberg a few rungs
down the ladder, snapping at their
heels.
There is the young and somewhat contrived Lewis Hamilton,
who, after a brilliant and nearmiss rookie year in 2007, spent
the beginning of this year’s season
driving with a noticeable lack of
character. Yet, as this half of the
season continues, he has found
new reserves after winning for a
second time in a row last weekend
at Hockenheim. The first came in

typically drenched conditions in
the UK four weeks ago, crossing
the line with a lead of 68.5 seconds, a lifetime on Formula One
standards. It showed just what he
is capable of if he gets his head
in gear.
Current World Champion Kimi
Räikkönen, relentlessly pushes his
Ferrari ever-onward in a blaze
of red, fuelled by an emotionless
determination you would think
only exists amongst the artificially
intelligent. Yet, in spite of this, the
Fin has won only twice this year,
the last being seven races ago.
The buoyant Felipe Massa, who
brings a Brazilian flamboyance to
Formula One, has won more races
and pole positions this year than
his team mate, and has thus raised
questions as to who should be the
number one Ferrari driver.
The collected Pole, Robert
Kubica, has kept on the tail of the
former three throughout the season, and marked the anniversary
of that horrifying 75G crash in

Canada last year with a win – giving him a week in the sun at the top
of the table. Further down the grid
lies the frustrated two-time World
Champion Fernando Alonso; the
Spanish matador abruptly thrown
off his high horse and who is now
looking more like an impatient
dog on a lead. Desperate to break
free, he is behind the wheel of a
car that keeps pulling him back
and wretchedly forbidding him to
run with the rest of the pack.
This weekend we look ahead
to the Hungarian Grand Prix in
Budapest where Hamilton will
start, sitting on 58 points, Massa on
54, Räikkönen on 51 and Kubica
on 48. Each will want to upset
the championship in their favour,
pushing to get ahead around that
crowded first corner. If neither
looks to dominate from here on
out, then signs for the final race
in Sao Paulo eight races away
suggest a tantalising finish to the
season.

natural disaster will result in the
SWC being ‘taken away’ from the
host country.
Although Blatter has assured
the media that he is confident
that South Africa will be ready to
host the Cup, it is essential that
the planning committee does not
become complacent. If anything,
progress on the stadiums needs
to speed up. Currently, the stadiums are being built at a speed
that is similar to that of an obese
snail that has been paralysed from
the neck down from a tragic salt
bombing accident. Essentially, the
planning committee, and to a large
extent the government, needs to
assure the world that all the stadiums will be ready on time, and

more importantly, that there will
not be any security risks for travelling fans. In addition, both parties
need to deliver on their promises
and implement control measures
that will ensure the successful
staging of the world’s premier
football event. Most importantly,
any foreseeable issues need to be
dealt with in the present and not
left on the shelf until government
is forced to act. Although South
Africa tends to take the necessary
actions, it usually seems to take
longer than it should.
One can only hope that government and the planning committee deliver on their promises and
stage a world-class tournament,
with an African flair.
201120071356211Capetown_gov

taste of victory - Harrington shows the Claret Jug some love
after winning The Open Championship

AMIDST rising interest rates
and an economic slowdown, the
2010 Soccer World Cup (SWC)
has become a beacon of hope for
all South Africans. In 1994, the
South African public bore witness
to nothing less than a miracle:
the unification of a nation in distress, brought upon by the successful organisation of a sporting event. Fourteen years ago,
the Springboks recorded a historic
victory against the All Blacks, and
in doing so, brought the country
together. Although it is unlikely
that Bafana Bafana will be able
to shock the football world by
seriously contesting the cup in
2010, the successful hosting of the
World Cup alone has the potential
to change South Africa in a way
that has never been seen before.
If South Africa successfully
manages to host the SWC, billions
of dollars in foreign investment
will be pumped into the economy,
and thousands of permanent jobs
will be created. However, if the
SWC proves to be unsuccessful,
South Africa may be perceived
negatively, or at least less favourably than before.
Although the hosting of the
World Cup has the capability
to change our great nation, the
South African planning committee needs to keep their eyes on the
ball in order to ensure the World
Cup makes its way to our shores.
Over the past couple of weeks,
there have been reports that FIFA,
football’s world governing body,
have been in talks with Brazil
about hosting the 2010 World
Cup. FIFA’s Chairman, Sepp
Blatter, recently reported that he
had already organised a ‘plan B’
for the World Cup. However, he
is adamant that nothing short of a

Soccer City - The venue for the 2010 World Cup final to be held
in Johannesburg

Greenpoint - Construction is well under way for Cape Town’s
premier stadium

Photo courtesy of hamilton_682x400_468278a_article+bleacherreport

Nicholas Duminy

Face off - Hamilton and Räikkönen look set to be locked into another neck and neck finish

EARLIER in the year, in what
many rugby fans denounced as
a terrible move by the South
African Rugby Union (SARU),
Peter de Villiers was appointed as
Springbok Head Coach. Whilst the
move angered some and pleased
others, in the new coach’s baptism
of fire, there has been a lot to be
happy about. After six games in
charge, de Villiers has proved to
the South African public that he
deserves the top job, but that a lot
of work still needs to be done.
Coming into a team newly
crowned World Champions is not
easy: de Villiers has faced the task
of building up a new team that
suits his style of coaching and
will be held accountable should
his experiments not work. After
the initial shock of dropping players such as Victor Matfield and
Percy Montgomery, for Andries
Bekker and Conrad Jantjes respectively, the South African public
was naturally hesitant. However,
it has resulted in some fine players getting a chance at the green
and gold.
The problem is that while both
sets of players have performed
well, they have been dropped and
included erratically with seemingly no plan. In my mind, de Villiers’
only drawback is that sometimes
there seems to be no continuity in
selection, one of the virtues most
evident in Jake White. Whilst it is
true that de Villiers is certainly not
lacking for choice with the quality
players we have available at the
moment, his ‘horses for courses’
attitude has been detrimental to
the teams continuity.
Montgomery in particular does
not seem to have found favour
with the coach. He is often on the
bench or not in the team at all.
Although there is no doubt that
Jantjies is a fine player, there has
to be more space for a 98-test veteran and World Cup winner. The
message he has been sending out

is not a good one, as other talented
players such as Frans Steyn and
Ruan Pienaar have faced the same
treatment. He could very well be in
danger of alienating certain players of prodigious talent should his
chop-and-change attitude remain.
When players don’t know what to
expect from a coach, morale and
form drop.
However, the two Welsh tests
and the Italian test were never
going to be the games on which he
would be judged. The all impor-

Although there
is no doubt that
Jantjes is a fine
player, there has
to be more space
for a 98-test veteran and World
Cup winner, like
Montgomery

tant Tri Nations was where de
Villiers had to earn the faith of the
fans and administrators alike. The
three games played away could
easily have been three wins from
three, as the Boks showed flashes
of talent that proved that on their
day they could beat anyone. The
Boks need to concentrate on their
finishing for the home leg, as that
too let them down overseas. On
returning home they will not be
unhappy after coming away with
one win and a bonus point.
De Villiers’ record has been
impressive thus far. Of the six tests
of which he has been in charge, the
Boks have won four and lost two
with one of the wins coming away
from home. It is inevitable that de
Villiers will be compared to Jake
White who won the Tri Nations
in his first year in charge, and at
the moment he is measuring up.
By beating New Zealand on their
soil for the first time in ten years
and the first time ever at Dunedin,
‘The House of Pain,’ de Villiers
has sent a message that, though he
may be inexperienced, he will be a
force to be reckoned with.

ANOTHER year brings with it
another doping scandal. The 2008
Tour de France has been marred,
yet again, by ill-disciplined athletes. The prestigious race, which
began in Brittany on 5 July, sees
cyclists battle 21 gruelling stages
over a distance of 3,500 kilometres. What should be a celebration
of a century-old race has turned
into an event infamous for disgrace and drug-taking.
This year’s latest doping fiend
is Team Barloworld’s Moisés
Dueñas Nevado, a talented
Spanish rider who has accomplished quite a lot in his short fouryear career. Overall second place
at both the Tour de l’Avenir and
the Regio Tour caught the attention of cycling fans, but regrettably, he has now thrown his competitive career away. Only two
weeks ago, Nevado tested positive
for the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), an incident that could
mark the end of his cycling career.
A Barloworld spokesperson said,
‘We are disappointed and concerned about one of our cyclists
testing positive. Team Barloworld
has a zero-tolerance policy towards
doping and, as such, Nevado has
been suspended from all team
activities with immediate effect.’
Not only is Nevado’s career
possibly over, but his brush with
doping has led Barloworld to officially cancel their Tour de France
sponsorship. Not wanting to be
associated with drug scandals,
Barloworld chose not to renew
their contract with the Tour next
year. The company said, ‘This
incident has a negative impact on
Barloworld and our brand principles, which our board has a duty

Photo courtesy of Moises-Duenas-Nevado_1034662

Rory Holmes

Photo courtesy of pieter_de_villiers_rugbyheaven

The Peter de
Villiers’ see-saw

to protect.’
Nevado is not the only cyclist
that has been disgraced during
the course of this year’s race.
Liquigas’s Manuel Beltrán and
Saunier Duval-Scott’s Riccardo
Riccò, both tested positive for
EPO. International Cycling
President, Pat McQuaid, was disappointed by yet another bout of
doping déjà vu. ‘It is a damaging
blow. Once again, it proves that
individuals are ready to take stupid risks.’
One thing is for sure: Between
the organisers of the Tour de France
and the cyclists themselves, something needs to be done to keep
what’s left of the Tour’s reputation
intact. Soon, companies will stop
sponsoring the athletes altogether,
and this historic race will cease
to hold the prestigious title it was
once famous for.